Rebellion: The Old
by sarsars
Summary: Old story. Incomplete. Will not continue. Read remake instead.
1. Prologue

Two toads are standing guard, positioned directly across from each other and staring at the entrance to the tunnel that they were guarding, both looking extremely bored. One of the toads sighed, "Why do we always get stuck watching this stupid tunnel. Nothing ever comes out of it"

The other toad shrugged, but at the same time they heard a small voice from the tunnel and both of them became alert. "What was that!" the second toad, a smaller, younger, more nervous toad said in shock. The first toad held his finger to his lips and lifted his spear up. They slowly walked towards the tunnel, and both of them heard footsteps running towards their entrance. They glanced at each other nervously, and heard another voice shouting, this time it came from a small distance away.

"Stop! I think this is it!" They heard a louder, deeper voice yell out, "Well of course! It says Mushroom Kingdom! We're here!" They heard the footsteps get closer and pushed themselves against the wall. Around the corner came six soldiers from another world, all of them in camouflage uniforms and holding guns. The toads glanced at each other and gulped. A soldier looked around, and his eyes fell onto the toads. The toads closed their eyes and prayed that the soldier wouldn't see them.

"What're you looking at?" The deep voice said. The toads opened their eyes, and the soldier who had been looking at them winked and said, "Nothing." The nervous toad opened his mouth in shock, and the soldiers continued on. The toads waited two minutes before moving, and then they followed the soldiers. They turned a corner and found the soldiers at the mouth of the tunnel, looking around for anyone. The older toad grabbed the younger toad by the neck and pulled him back to the side of the tunnel as another soldier turned around.

The younger toad shrugged in apology, but the soldier that saw them walked right up to their level. The solider turned one way, then turned towards the toads and saw them. His eyes opened in shock and he opened his mouth to yell, but that's when they reacted. The toads jumped on him, covering his mouth and stealing his gun, then silently knocked him out and dragged him to the side. They tied him up and pushed him aside. They flashed each other thumbs up, but at that moment two other soldiers came around the corner looking for their friend. The toads were in plain sight, and the four of them stared at each other.

The soldiers raised their guns and fired several shots. The nervous toad had jumped to the side and expected the other toad to follow, but when he turned around he saw his friend standing there with a shocked expression on his face. The toad dropped to his knees with blood coming out of the two bullet holes that pierced his chest.

"Why didn't you shoot?" One soldier yelled at the other.

The younger toad saw his comrade fall onto his face and die. The soldiers then aimed their guns at the other toad, who reacted instantly. He rammed his tough head into one soldier, then grabbed him and pulled him around as the second soldier fired. His bullets hit the other soldier and kill him instantly. The toad dropped him aside and rammed the other soldier into the ground. The soldier hit the wall and his head dropped to the side.

The toad dropped to the ground and took a large breath. He had just witnessed the death of two people in less than a minute, one by his own doing. He grabbed the gun from the soldier that had been shot and waited for the other three soldiers to come, but after a minute of waiting only two came. They looked around, more cautious than the others, but the toad knew what to do. He aimed the gun he had stolen from the dead soldier and fired as many shots as he could at them. At the first bullet the nearest one dropped, but the other soldier managed to dive aside to avoid the other bullets. The toad ran to the other side of the tunnel and pressed his back to it, waiting for the soldier to make the next move.

He heard the two remaining soldiers yelling and heard a single shot get fired. He raised his gun and waited for something to happen.

The toad saw a small, black egg fly into the air. He wondered what it was for a second, but soon he realized what it was. The grenade hit the ground and exploded, engulfing the unconscious soldiers, the dead toad, and the remaining toad, in fiery flames. And once the blast was over, the tunnel broke apart, crushing the charred bodies in cement.

As the smoke cleared, the soldier saw what damage he had done and nodded. His mission was to cause as much damage as possible before reinforcements had arrived, and that's what he had done. He had destroyed the tunnel, for whatever how long, that allowed outsiders into the mushroom kingdom. His mission was successful, even though he had killed two toads in the process. He removed his mask to reveal his true face...

...Mario...

"Oh man, that was close" he sat down and removed the rest of his armor. He kept the gun though, just in case. He left the tunnel and continued to Princess Peach's castle to warn the others of the impending doom...


	2. Chapter 1

Mario walked through the giant gates and reached Princess Peach's castle. A glorious castle made in the early 19th century, handed down throughout Peach's family until it landed at her. Mario walked up the stairs to the castle and opened the doors. At once two toads through their spears out to stop Mario in his tracks. Mario jumped, but soon regained himself and gave the toads a thumbs up. The toads slackened, but their spears held in place. Mario sighed and said, "Peach, the Princess, rules over the land, until thou shall take her throne thou are only her servents." At this, the toads removed their spears and Mario walked on through, shaking his head at the unnecessary confirmation. He walked up the stairs directly across from the door and reached the room where everyone was gathered. Luigi was the first person to look at him, for he was sitting right next to the door. Luigi got up and gave Mario a big hug, which he returned, and said, "What happened?"

Mario smirked and said, "It all went down almost perfectly."

Luigi gulped when he heard the word "almost" and he said, "Almost? What went wrong?"

Mario's smirk dropped and his eyes went to the floor. "Two toads were killed in the process."

Luigi nodded soberly at the news and backed off. Daisy and Princess Peach took his place. Both hugged him, but Daisy soon let go and walked away with Luigi. "So... what happened?" she said.

"Sit down, please." Mario said, and Peach obeyed. "Alright, here's what happened..."

Mario walked out of the tunnel from the Mushroom Kingdom, but heard loud footsteps running towards the tunnel, and Mario dove into the bushes. He looked down at his clothes and slapped his head. There was no way that he'd fit in in these clothes. He stripped himself down completely, removed his beloved hat, and walked out in only his underwear to meet six soldiers staring at him, unbelievably. Three of them dropped their gazes, but the other three kept staring at him. Mario saw one of them even _wink_ at him! Mario opened his mouth in disbelief, but said in as gruff voice as he could, "Anyone know where someone could join the army?"

He was brought clothes and put them on over his old clothes and stepped out. He shrugged, but he saw something flash towards him. He caught the gun in one hand with lightning speed. The soldier that threw the gun nodded at the reaction and said, "Come with me. We could use you"

And so he went...

They brought Mario to a large training camp filled with thousands of soldiers. Some were at a target practice, some were eating, some were flying planes and dropping fake bombs, and the rest were either resting or planning their attacks. Mario looked around at all of this in awe. The soldiers brought him to a large, dark green tent, and motioned him to come inside. As soon as Mario walked inside someone jumped onto him and held a knife to his throat. Mario reacted instantly and kicked him off. The soldier flew to the top of the tent and landed on the table that was placed in the middle of the tent, breaking it into pieces. Mario backed off, ready for the soldier to attack at any moment, but another soldier came out of the shadows, clapping.

"Very good. You will do fine in our attack against the mushroom kingdom." Mario's eyes opened wide, so the soldier said, "I'm guessing you know where it is then?"

Mario nodded and said, "Indeed... I think those soldiers found me at the tunnel even."

The soldier nodded again, helping his comrade to his feet. "You okay?"

The other soldier said, "yeah... I am..." but he kept his eyes on Mario, in both awe and anger. Mario just shrugged and said, "So when do we attack?"

The first soldier said, "we attack today. You'll be working with five of our best soldiers, including my partner here." He nodded at the soldier leaning on the cabinet. "Be prepared for anything... Mr..."

Mario thought quickly and said, "Smith... uh... Mark Smith."

The soldier nodded, as if he knew who Mario was, and said, "Then follow me to your partners." He pointed at his comrade, "You too."

They walked out of the tent and one of the soldiers that found Mario earlier followed them. It was the one who had winked at Mario earlier, which made Mario shiver. The soldier walked up right behind and whispered something only Mario could hear. "Hello Mario, glad you could join our ranks"

That made Mario stop in his tracks. The soldier winked and motioned him to follow. Mario, regretfully, followed, but stayed right beside the soldier. "How'd you know it was... me... and why aren't you telling them?"

The soldier said, "I've been a fan of the mushroom kingdom since I was little. I wanted to help protect it. I guess you're on the same mission then, huh?"

Mario didn't know if it was a trick or not, but he replied anyway. "Yeah... I guess so..."

The soldier stopped and turned to him, "Then I guess we're on the same team then." He extended his arm in a sign of friendship, and Mario extended hims. They shook hands, and Mario finally felt like he had an ally. The two soldiers ahead stopped and said, "Come on guys! I'm glad you're getting friendly with each other, but hurry up! Willisten... Mark... COME ON!"

Mario said, "Willisten?" Willisten just shrugged and continued. Mario observed Willisten some more, he seemed firmilar, his tall, skinny body and large nose, but Mario couldn't place the name. Finally the four of them stopped in front of three other guys. The two other soldiers turned to Mario and said, "Meet your partners. Lenny, Richard, and Bark... and you don't want to know Bark's real name... got it?" Mario gulped and said, "Got it."

The cheif was right, Bark was not someone you wanted to mess with. Bark had large muscles and a buzz cut, Mario wasn't surprised if Bark didn't even have any teeth, but Bark smiled and Mario saw a dirty mouth with sharp teeth that Mario was sure that Bark had fixed to look like. They nodded to each other, and the cheif said, "Glad to see you guys will get along. Good luck men, you will be scouts and destroy as much as you can before reinforcements can arrive. Remember, that's the only tunnel to this area, so protect it." Everyone nodded, and Mario stuck an idea. It would be risky though, but he had to risk it, for the sake of the mushroom kingdom. "Go forward men, and lay waste to that disgusting place!"

A few minutes later they were at the mouth of the tunnel, all of the soldiers stared at Bark, who nodded them to move forward. The soldier who had attacked Mario earlier and one other soldier went first, then Bark and the third soldier went, leaving Mario and "Willicent." Willicent turned to Mario and said, "My name's Waluigi... I used Willicent as a code name. I'm here to protect the mushroom kingdom too, but we can't take on these guys at once, so we need a plan." Mario's eyes grew wide in shock. THAT'S where he remembered Willicent from. The Mario Party games that grew older and older until they were finally killed off.

"Alright... Waluigi... let's beat them." Mario said, and they walked into the tunnel.

"You guys hurry up back there!" Bark yelled.

"Sorry!" Waluigi yelled back. A few minutes later they reached the sign that said, "Mushroom Kingdom, left. Final Destination, right." and Waluigi said, "Stop! I think this is it!"

Bark sighed and said, "Well of course! It says Mushroom Kingdom! We're here!"

Waluigi gave an apologetic shrug and they carried on. Waluigi looked around and saw the toads. He gave a wink, but Bark said, "What're you looking at?" Waluigi gave another wink and said, "Nothing" and they continued on. Mario saw the toads too, but didn't give a sign that he noticed. They reached the mouth of the tunnel, but one of the soldiers turned around and said, "I saw something. Be right back..."

And left. A few minutes later he hadn't come back, so another soldier and Waluigi left. They heard gunshots and Bark sent Mario and the other soldier down to get them. Mario and the soldier ran ten steps, and were met with gunfire. Mario dove out of the way, but the other soldier wasn't as lucky, he was shot. Mario ran back to Bark and said, "There's resistance! Everyone's gone down!" Bark growled and ran forward, but Mario tripped him and shot him in the head. "Sucker!" He said, and grabbed a grenade from his belt, took off the pin, and threw it. He hoped that Waluigi had survived, but he didn't see Waluigi before the grenade exploded.

..."And that's what happened" Mario said, sullenly.

Peach looked at him in shock and said, "Waluigi? He was there?" Mario nodded sullenly and they shared a moment of grief, but soon they heard an explosion coming from the tunnel. They saw a pile of green run out of the tunnel and heard gunfire and screaming coming from the village. Mario and Peach looked at each other in shock, and Mario shook his head in defeat.

The invasion had begun.


	3. Chapter 2

At the training camp in final destination, the chief officer was scratching his head and signing papers that littered his desk. When one officer walked through the opening, the chief barely looked up. "What do you want?" he asked without keeping his eyes off of the paper.

The officer looked nervous, but said, "Um... the scouts have returned."

The chief immediately got up and walked towards the officer, who said, "but not all of them returned."

The chief shrugged that aside, and said, "So how many did Bark bring back?" They made eye contact and the chief saw regret in the officer's eyes. The chief stopped and looked down, then said, "he was my best man. So who survived? That Mark fellow, my best friend, Willicent?"

At Willicent the officer looked up with a gleam in his eyes. "Yes, sir... Willicent was the only survivor. He crawled out of the tunnel after we heard an explosion, it seems that someone blocked off the tunnel and everyone was killed but him. He says it was a grenade that exploded, and he ran out of the end of the tunnel just in time. He says that... the others didn't make it. I'm sorry sir" And with that, the officer left.

The chief walked back to his desk and sat down in the chair. Five of his men had just died, including the new recruit. He shook his head and thought, _Oh man, on his first day too... he could have__ made a fine soldier._ He turned his chair back to the desk and continued writing papers as if nothing had happened.

At the Mushroom Kingdom, the army had destroyed several houses and were advancing fast. The people at the castle could hear the anguished screams of all of the toads in the village. Toadsworth shook all of the screams out of his head and said, "You must flee, princess! We will protect the castle. You must go to the tunnel behind the castle. It has been named the Kirby realm... it will give you time to regroup with some of the locals there. Go to every realm you can and get as many recruits as possible. That way you might have a fighting chance"

Mario waved his arms in front of him, "Woah, woah, woah! Time out! The Mushroom Kingdom's falling apart and you want us to RUN? That doesn't sound right."

Toadsworth suddenly ran up to Mario and grabbed his collar, "Look, I don't have time for this. The army's coming fast, my job is to protect the princess, but I won't be around forever, so I'm giving the job to you. Now take the princess and, as you say, 'RUN!'"

Mario's mouth was slightly open, but he quickly regained himself and said, "Alright then. Kirby realm, get there safely, take princess... but what about you?"

Toadsworth jumped onto the pedestal and said, "I'll hold them off" And was met with several gasps and protests.

"But you can't! You've been my protector for as long as I can remember! You can't go!" Princess Peach said, loudly.

Toadsworth sighed, shook his head, and said, "I'm sorry princess, but this is the best way I can protect you, by stalling these people as best I can."

Luigi stepped forward and said, "But you can't do it alone? You'll need help!"

Toadsworth nodded, but said, "I can't have help. You all need to leave." Mario stepped beside Toadsworth and said, "He's right guys... I know we might want to stay and fight, but we have a job to do. And that job starts with going to the Kirby realm and getting help. Let's go! To the trapdoor!" And with that, they went without question. Everyone, that is, but Hammer Bro.

Hammer Bro didn't move at all. All he did was shake his head until everyone had left. Mario turned to leave, but sensed that Hammer Bro was still there. "What?" he asked without looking at him.

Hammer Bro glared and said, "I've been playing with you guys for too long. I haven't done SQUAT these past decades. I'm going out with a bang, and don't you try to stop me."

Mario sighed and said, "Alright, good luck"

Hammer Bro brought out a hammer and struck his other hand with it, "I don't need luck." and Mario left.

Toadsworth, Hammer Bro, and twenty other toads were left in the first floor of the castle. Three other toads were on the second floor, waiting for the signal to close the doors. They all could hear the screams getting louder, and were getting more nervous with each scream. Then the doors were struck by several soldiers, but the barricades stopped them for a while. The toads and Hammer Bro got into their positions and waited for the attack. Each one of the toads, and Toadsworth, were carrying a sharp spear, and Hammer Bro was armed with several hammers. The doors were struck again, and the barricade almost gave way. One more strike and they would be in a battle that would never end until one of them gave up.

The sad thing is, it would probably be the group of toads... and Hammer Bro.

The doors were struck a third time and the barrier gave way. Six soldiers ran in without stopping, and soon were struck down by two hammers and four spears in the stomach. The toads were waiting on either side of the door, waiting for more soldiers to attack. A few minutes of silence, and then a black egg was thrown into the room. Toadsworth saw immediately what it was and ran towards it. Hammer Bro saw what he was doing and yelled, "CATCH!"

He threw a hammer at Toadworth, who caught it and reached the grenade. It was still heading towards the ground when Toadsworth swung the hammer at the grenade. Hard enough that it was knocked back outside the castle, but not hard enough to ignite it right there. Toadsworth jumped to the side as the grenade ignited, burning all of the soldiers outside and causing the bridge connecting the castle to the outside to crumble. The toads cheered, but only for a second because the soldiers brought a secondary bridge. The soldiers kept coming now, each one was either struck down by a hammer or a spear. The soldiers did get in a lucky shot or two, and three of the toads were killed by a bullet to the chest. Finally the toads and Hammer Bro were too weak to battle and the soldiers gained the upper hand. They got in more and more shots until soon only four toads, Toadsworth, and Hammer Bro were left.

"Retreat!" Toadsworth yelled and motioned for the remaining toads to follow. They ran to the sides and up the side stairs. More soldiers had come in now, and were shooting at them. One toad was shot as he climbed up the stairs and another was shot down as the doors were closed, leaving only five toads left on the second floor. They barricaded the doors again and split up. Toadsworth and Hammer Bro ran to the end of the room to grab some hidden supplies.

As soon as they reached the end of the room they heard a crash and saw splinters of wood fly everywhere. They also heard several gunshots and dove to the side. The soldiers had entered the second floor. Toadsworth turned around and saw the three toads on the ground, all with bullet holes in them. Hammer Bro looked out the window and ducked just in time, for a grenade had crashed through the window. The soldiers ran out of the room and Hammer Bro was the only one close to a door. Hammer Bro opened the door and turned around to see Toadsworth look at him in sadness. Toadsworth nodded, and Hammer Bro closed the door. The grenade exploded, taking Toadsworth with it.

Hammer Bro leaned against the door with small tears in his eyes. He didn't know what to do. The room was a long tunnel that had a small flight of stairs heading down, so he started walking that way. After several minutes of walking and not hearing any sounds he relaxed and picked up the pace. He finally reached a door and opened it, and was met by the barrel of a gun. He looked up, but instead of finding a soldier, he found Mario standing there. Mario lifted the gun, looked behind Hammer Bro, and said, "So you're the only one?"

Hammer Bro thought of making a smartass remark, but thought against it and said, "Yes... so where is everyone?"

Mario put the gun back in his pocket and said, "Waiting for us."


	4. Chapter 3

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Yoshi 4. Peach 5. Daisy 6. Toad 7. Toadette 8. Birdo 9. Hammer Bro 10. Blooper 11. Wario 12. Dry Bones

Mario and Hammer Bro traveled through the ends of the city to reach the tunnel. Thankfully, the soldiers hadn't passed the castle, so they traveled without casualities. They found the others gathered around the entrance to the tunnel to the Kirby realm, waiting for them. Peach saw them first, so she pointed at them and called out, "There they are!"

Mario reaised his left hand and pointed one finger in the air, and he pointed at Hammer Bro with the other hand, signaling that there was only one survivor; him. The others looked down in sadness, Peach was the most heartbroken, but when Mario passed them, they snapped to attention.

"Alright guys," Mario said with authority. "We don't know what's behind this tunnel. There might be soldiers all gathered around the entrance, waiting for us. But Toadsworth sent us to this particular tunnel for a reason. So we must respect his decision and follow through." He paused to pull out his small gun and held it in his right hand, then continued. "So stay close to me and be prepared for anything." And with one last look to the large city, with hopes that they will come back to it alive, they went through the tunnel.

"Attack! Attack!"

Those words rang out as the soldiers poured into the tunnel to the realm known as the Legend of Zelda realm. Waluigi was one of those soldiers and was in the direct middle of the first wave, also known to some as the "Bait Wave" He had saved himself from the tunnel after that toad had slammed him into the wall. He was barely concious, but he had enough sense to pull himself out of the tunnel before the grenade exploded. After scouts saw the explosion, they ran in and found Waluigi crawling out. They brought him back to camp and he was immediately interrogated. He answered several questions truthfully, but for some, like, "Who threw that grenade?" He simply shrugged and said, "I couldn't tell." He was thankful that he honestly didn't know, because if had thrown the grenade, he was sure that the interrogation officer could read his mind.

And now, barely two hours after the explosion, he was being pulled into another battle. This time he had no idea what to expect. If it came down to shooting his gun, he hoped he didn't have to. He reached the end of the tunnel and was bathed in a bright light.

He was about to befriend an amazing ally.

The group had reached the Kirby realm. They were standing on a hill overlooking a small town with a large castle just above it. The castle's size could easily rival princess Peach's castle, maybe even surpass it. The entire scene looked very peaceful. The sun was just rising, but the group couldn't afford to rest now, they had a job to do.

Luigi was the first to speak this time. He turned to the others and said, "I think that Mario, Wario, Peach, Daisy, and I should be the only ones to go into that village."

His decision was met with several complaints, but Mario stepped forward too and said, "He's right. We don't know who inhabit that village, and we don't want to freak them out by bringing... uh... animals... no offense." He grinned, innocently.

The others had to agree to this, but a few minutes later the decision was wiped completely from their minds. A pink puffball known as Kirby was running through the field, closely followed by a yellow figure with green and yellow fuzzy hair that covered his eyes, and another figure with hair pulled back in a ponytail. Their names were Tiff and Tuff, and they were running from the village. The group looked at Mario and Luigi and raised their eyebrows in almost the same movement. Mario and Luigi just shrugged and followed the three.

Kirby, Tiff, and Tuff laid by a tree and got out a picnic basket. They were just about to enjoy a nice breakfast when they were approached by a group of twelve strange people. "Uhh... hello?" Tiff asked nervously, fiddling with her ponytail.

"Hello. Do you live in that village?" Mario asked as he pointed to the village.

Tuff nodded and stepped forward. "Yes we do. My name's Tuff, this is Tiff" he pointed to his sister, and then pointed to Kirby. "That's Kirby."

Mario nodded thoughtfully and said, "Kirby... I remember that name from somewhere" which was barely audible to anyone besides Luigi. Kirby got up and walked up to Mario, then turned to Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi. He tilted his head as if trying to remember something, but he didn't speak. Instead his eyes lit up and said, "PUYO!"

The group just stood there, their minds turned blank as soon as they heard this. Wario looked at Tuff and said, "Is that all he says?"

Tuff grinned and nodded, "Sometimes he says 'Kirby' which is how we got the name. We thought Kirby would sound better than Puyo."

Tiff stepped forward and said, "I think he remembers you four from somewhere. But I guess he can't really tell you."

Mario turned to Luigi, Yoshi, and Peach, and said, "Where was a game that all four of us were in? A game that might've included non-Mushroom Kingdom creatures?" The idea came to all four of them at the same time. Their eyes lit up the same as Kirby's, and they all said, "Melee!" They remembered several people from the game, as they had to fight them consecutive times, but Kirby was one of the members they remembered the most. Mostly from being inside his stomach so many times. Mario said, "Welcome back. It's good to meet you again." And he shook Kirby's short hand.

After a few more introductions, Mario suddenly turned serious. The three could tell that the tension was getting higher, so they backed down. Mario said, "We need your help." Simple as that. He didn't explain anything yet, but the three could tell that they needed help. Kirby turned towards Tiff and Tuff and said, "Puyo!" and nodded his head. Tiff understood and said, "We'll help. What do you need?"

And so Mario explained the attack on the Mushroom Kingdom. Hammer Bro, Peach, Luigi, and Yoshi threw in some things that Mario forgot, but Mario finished it off by saying, "So, you gonna help the revolution?" Kirby, Tuff, and Tiff just stood there with their mouths open. Mario could sense their doubt, and he felt it himself. _They're just kids,_ he thought, _How could Tiff and Tuff help. But we do need Kirby, and that's what matters._ "So, you gonna help?" he asked again. Kirby stepped towards them and nodded. Tuff soon followed, and Tiff followed soon after. They had just gained three new recruits!

Little did they know that they were going to lose one of them very soon.


	5. Chapter 4

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Yoshi 4. Peach 5. Daisy 6. Toad 7. Toadette 8. Birdo 9. Hammer Bro 10. Blooper 11. Wario 12. Waluigi 13. Dry Bones 14. Kirby 15. Tiff 16. Tuff

The tunnel leading from the Kirby to the Legend of Zelda realm hadn't been found yet, but the soldiers were getting closer. The Legend of Zelda was under a deadly attack. The soldiers' armies had taken a blow, and hundreds of soldiers laid on the forest floor, dead. After they reached the end of the tunnel, the wave Waluigi was in was met with an amazing, green forest. A scouting toad had reached the realm first to warn them of the attack, so now the tunnel was being defended by several cannons and people armed with swords and deku nuts, who are ready to give up their lives to protect their realm from crumbling.

They attacked on sight, which was bad for Waluigi.

Waluigi entered the realm when half the cannons had already been destroyed and several rows of soldiers were already attacking. A cannonball struck several soldiers just a few rows ahead of Waluigi, but the wave just kept coming. Waluigi was in range of a cannon that no one was firing at, so he grabbed a grenade, plucked the pin, and threw it saying, "I'm sorry."

The grenade exploded as it hit the cannon, blowing up the cannon and sent the people operating the cannon flying to their deaths as they were blown off the side. Waluigi flinched when the grenade exploded, but the wave pushed him farther into the battle. Soldiers were dying all around Waluigi, but they pressed onward. After several more deaths and explosions, Waluigi was being pushed to the front of the wave, which increased his anxiety even more. Soldiers were being burned and blasted all around, and some soldiers right beside Waluigi were struck down.

The worst part of the battle hadn't even begun yet.

Meanwhile, Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby had lead the group to the giant castle, and were heading for the room where King Dedede and Metaknight were discussing several matters. Metaknight was King Dedede's new partner ever since Escargoon was salted to death and was treated a lot better than Escargoon ever was. King Dedede and Metaknight were talking about the explosions that only they could hear, coming from the tunnel connecting their realm to the Zelda realm.

"Things are getting worse," Metaknight said. "If such a powerful realm could fall so easily, a peaceful realm such as ours won't have a chance."

King Dedede looked shaken by the news, but said, "You should know that more than anyone. I trust you, but I am worried as well. How're we gonna get all of the villagers out of here?"

Metaknight closed his eyes and said, "We can't. At least, not all of them. If there's any hope of rescuing any of them, we must get to the only safe realm there is. There are only two realms that are not connected to Final Destination, where the soldiers are. One realm is the Kirby realm, the other is-"

But as he was about to speak, the doors burst open, revealing the group inside. They ran to the table where King Dedede and Metaknight were speaking and Tuff yelled out, "Dedede! Metaknight! We've found friends!"

Tiff also yelled out, "They're here to help us!"

Kirby yelled, "PUYO!"

Metaknight nodded his head, "Alright, what is your news?"

Mario stepped forward and said, "Remember me, Metaknight?"

Metaknight's eyes flew open, but he only nodded. "Yes, yes I do." "Then you know why I am here, correct?" Mario said. "The soldiers have attacked and destroyed the Mushroom Kingdom. Toadsworth sent us here for a reason, and that reason must have been to find you. You need to help us get to the safe realm that had been preparing for this moment for months!"

Metaknight jumped onto the table and held his sword out, "Agreed! Let's leave at once. Anyone willing to join us can come, but we've got to get some more reinforcements first."

The group nodded and Mario said, "So where do we go from here?"

Metaknight stepped forward so he was talking only to Mario. "There are only three realms connected to this realm. Mushroom Kingdom and Legend of Zelda are already under attack, so we must head for the Star Fox realm. We'll be able to recruit Krystal and the others if they're willing to help."

Mario nodded in agreement, but King Dedede stepped in between them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Time out! We're leaving? But nothing's even come for us yet. We're safe!"

Metaknight opened his mouth to speak, but before could an explosion came from the village, making everyone turn towards the window that overlooked the village. There were soldiers streaming from the Mushroom Kingdom and destroying the small village. Bullets could be heard all the way from the village. Two bullets cracked the window, blurring everyone's view of the village, and the doors burst open. Two creatures like Tiff and Tuff ran through the doors, one leaning on the other with bullet holes in his chest.

"Help us! The village is under attack!" the bleeding one yelled.

"They're heading for the castle. They'll reach us any minute!" the other one yelled, and at that exact moment a bullet rang out, striking him in the head. He collapsed, causing the one he was holding to collapse as well.

"Run... flee!" the bleeding one said weakly.

Standing in the doorway were two soldiers, one with his gun pointed at them, the nozzle smoking from recent use. The other one stepped forward and fired at Metaknight. Metaknight dove to the side and the bullets cracked the glass even more, shattering it and sending glass flying out the building, thankfully.

"RUN!" King Dedede yelled, and pulled the others towards another doorway. Mario took out his revolver and fired at both of them. The soldier with the smoking gun ducked down and the bullet missed, but the other one was struck in the heart.

Metaknight nodded and said, "Nice aim" and took a step forward, but he was forced aside by Blooper.

"I'm going to do something for a change, instead of just running in fear!" he yelled as he ran at the soldier.

"No! Don't be a fool!" Metaknight yelled out, but he was too late. The soldier fired his gun twice. One missed, but the other struck Blooper in the head. Blooper was alive, but barely, but he kept running. The soldier's eyes opened wide in fear and he took a step back. He dropped his gun and ran, but Blooper dove on top of him and strangled him.

Mario ran after Blooper, but Metaknight stopped him. "Don't. It's too late for him." Mario flinched, but Metaknight pulled him towards the doorway where Luigi was waiting. The soldiers started filing into the room from several doorways, and Blooper was soon shot to death. Mario and Metaknight dove into the room and Luigi closed the door just as bullets clipped the side of the door.

"That was close!" Luigi said in a sad attempt at humor, and Mario pulled him forwards. King Dedede motioned them to follow him into a hidden room that led to a hidden tunnel. King Dedede grabbed Luigi and pulled him in, then closed the door behind Metaknight.

"We must hurry. It won't be long before they find this place." Metaknight said and ran forward.

"The others are almost at the other end! We need to catch up with them!" said King Dedede.

The tunnel became so small that they had to start crawling, but they moved as fast as they could and soon caught up with the others. Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby reached the end of the tunnel first and ran forward. They opened the door a crack and peered out. The tunnel lead to a small section of grass that was close to the Star Fox realm. Soon the room was crowded with everyone, and King Dedede had to push and shove to get to the door.

"Everyone!" he called out. "As soon as we leave this room we have to run as quickly as we can. That tunnel thing is just outside, so if we sprint we should make it without being found. Ready?" He opened the door without waiting for an answer and ran out.

Everyone ran out of the room as fast as they could. They didn't have to worry, for the soldiers hadn't made it past the castle yet, so they were in the clear. At least, until someone yelled, "THERE THEY ARE!" And shots rang out. The dust below them was shot out by the bullets that missed, some so close to people that they even felt the bullets missed them. A bullet was so close to Tuff's hair that he felt it fly up. King Dedede made it to the tunnel, ran a few feet inside, and started helping people run in.

Everyone made it inside unharmed, but King Dedede stopped Metaknight and Mario and asked them, "What realm were you talking about!"

Mario answered, "The realm is a safe realm that the only entrance is from the Legend of Zelda realm. That's probably why it was attacked second."

King Dedede said, "So what's it called!" He was close to hysterical and wanted answers, having seen his kingdom fall apart before his eyes.

Metaknight stepped in between them and said directly to King Dedede's face, "The realm's nickname is called...

...Rebellion"


	6. Chapter 5

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Yoshi 4. Peach 5. Daisy 6. Toad 7. Toadette 8. Birdo 9. Hammer Bro 10. Wario 11. Dry Bones 12. Kirby 13. Tiff 14. Tuff 15. King Dedede 16. Metaknight ::::::: 17. Waluigi

They run out of the tunnel and were immediately met with gunfire. The bullets rocketed off the walls and sparks flew everywhere. They dove to the side, yelling out for them to stop. The gunfire stopped and three figures stepped forward. Toad was the only one that got shot, in the leg, but Toadette was trying to bandage it up. She glared at the shooters, but Metaknight smiled and said, "Hello Krystal, Fox, Falco."

"Long time no see!" Fox smirked. Krystal and Fox walked over to the group while Falco turned towards the tunnel and muttered to himself. Fox walked over to Toad, frowned, and said, "I'm sorry for that. Our medics, Slippy and Peppy, will take care of that." Toad nodded in a grimace, but it satisfied Fox and he turned to the others. "When're we leaving? Krystal told us that as soon as we saw you two-" he nodded at Metaknight and Mario, "That we'd leave"

"We're leaving soon. But first we need a plan." said Mario.

"I'm not going to like this, am I?" said Fox and he was met with several head shakes. He nodded and walked towards Falco. Fox motioned them all to follow him. Krystal smiled at Mario, who made Peach glare, but Falco was the only one that looked skeptical about the whole thing.

"We'll come back to our base; it's only a short walk from here. Your friend will be taken care of, so no need to worry." Fox added nervously. "We can make a plan on what we do while we're there. We just have to wait for Slippy before we leave."

"Who's Slippy!" King Dedede said, louder than necessary.

Fox held up his hand and everyone stopped. He was looked down over the hill that they were standing on and said, "Scouts." The others, quickly but silently, crept up the hill and saw a small scooter built for two flying towards a large, gleaming silver building. Two soldiers were riding it. They landed the scooter near a door and got off. Fox, Falco, and Krystal got out their guns and aimed. Fox nodded his head once and they fired. Two bullets missed, one hitting the door and breaking the glass, and the other hitting the side of the scooter. The third bullet lodged itself in the driver's skull.

"Headshot!" Falco yelled, ignoring the glares. The soldier shot dropped to the ground, and his comrade ran inside the building in fear.

"Coward." Metaknight scoffed. They waited a couple of minutes, and then they ran towards the building.

Fox stopped at the fallen soldier and felt his pulse. "Dead." He said, and led the group inside.

-----------------------

Waluigi had reached a small hole in the ground that led to a hidden tunnel and hopped inside. He had traveled through this tunnel several times before. He flicked on a flashlight and cautiously stepped inside. "Hello?" he called out.

Immediately he was met with a flying spear. He dove to the side, the spear missed his head by inches. "What was that for!" he called out, more angry than nervous now.

Suddenly something hit the back of his head, hard, and he fell into the darkness.

He woke up in a small cage hanging above a large pool of lava. He felt the heat rise up and actually burn his face. He flipped himself over and lifted his collar up to protect the back of his neck. "What the heck is going on!" he called out.

To his left were three cages with a soldier in each cage. All three of them were alert and waiting for something to happen, but each of them had fear in their eyes. At once there was a loud metallic noise and the bottom of each cage fell out and into the lava. Waluigi reacted instantly and grabbed the side of the cage with both his hands and feet. He heard some screams coming from the other cages and the fizzing of the lava as it dissolved whatever touched it. He held firm, but he was ready for this side of the cage to fall out as well.

He looked back at the cages, but only saw one soldier left, pathetically hanging onto the last bar of the cage by only one hand. He fell soon after, however leaving only Waluigi left. Though he was the last one left, he held on for what seemed like an hour before he heard another metallic sound. He thought it was the side of the cage that was falling out and was ready to jump up, but instead the cage moved over the lava and dropped onto the ground. He felt hard, cold rock as soon as he hit the ground. The cage bounded over and rolled away, but Waluigi had let go before the cage hit. Waluigi got up, shaken, but alive.

Suddenly he saw gleaming silver and ducked down. A sword sliced through the air, aiming at him, and he barely missed getting beheaded. "Hey! Stop it Link!" he called out, hoping he was right.

The attack stopped, and Link removed his mask. "How'd you know who I was?" he kept the sword out, just in case.

"I've met you before. I don't know if you remember, but my name is Waluigi, and-" Link cut him off and gave him a hug, completely dropping his guard.

Link said, "It's so good to find a friend! Times are harsh right now, so we don't have much time to lose. I'm glad we found you when we die, because we are soon going to the Rebellion realm." he looked at Waluigi closely, "Do you know where it is?"

Waluigi nodded. "I've been to that place several times. So we must hurry and get there while we can. Get all the willing troops and we'll leave very soon."

Link nodded, said "Okay!" and ran away.

Waluigi dropped to the ground and sighed in immense relief. "That was way too close" he said out loud. He waited in this position for several minutes, and then got up to explore.

-------------------------

The inside of the building was a mess. Bullet holes were everywhere, as well as blood and several soldiers' bodies. The group looked in wonder at the mess, but Fox calmly said, "We've been getting rid of these scouts for a while now."

Falco smirked and said, "They're so stupid they don't realize why their scouts aren't coming back. We have like 30 of those scooters lying around."

"It'll be good for a quick escape once we decide to leave." said Krystal. "Which is another reason why we've been collecting them."

"Where's... the medics?" asked Toad, still in pain.

Fox pointed towards a long hallway, "Third door on your right. Hopefully at least Peppy is there."

Toad nodded, but Toadette said, "I'm going with him."

"Very well then, but hurry back." replied Metaknight.

The others walked towards a large room with a very tall ceiling. The room seemed to take up half of the entire building, which was over 10000 feet in area. A table was in the center of the room with several chairs aligned up across from each other. Everyone found a seat and looked at Fox, Krystal, Metaknight, and Mario.

"So far the only realms that have been defeated are the Mushroom Kingdom and the Kirby realms." Mario started off. "We have come from both of those realms. The Legend of Zelda realm is under attack, but it's powerful and hopefully will be able to fend off itself while we make it to the Rebellion realm. That's the only doorway through, so it's well hidden."

"But you know the entrance, right?" King Dedede asked nervously.

Metaknight nodded, "But a group of twenty of us might not make it unnoticed, so we might have to go in groups."

Fox put his head on top of his enclosed arms, "Alright, but where IS the entrance?"

Krystal put her hand on Fox's arm, "Only a few of us actually know, so you'll just have to trust us."

Fox sighed and leaned back, "Alright, but you keep talking about 'Other' realms Krystal. How many are there?"

Metaknight stood up and said, "This is my department." He turned to Fox and started. "There are 15 realms in total. Final Destination is connected to all but two realms, the rest are connected by three or four. It's just like a maze with 15 clearings. Only a few realms are grouped together, the Mushroom Kingdom, Kirby, Beanbean Kingdom, Rebellion, Star Fox, and Legend of Zelda are all grouped together."

"Beanbean Kingdom?" Luigi asked, his mind only focused on that word.

Mario grinned and said, "That's right. And if we ever decide to go there again, we'll have to meet up with Prince Peasley"

Luigi's eyes opened wide.

Fox stood up, "does anyone hear that?" he asked.

Only Krystal nodded her head. Fox and Krystal's ears could only pick up on the sound, a burning piece of metal heading straight towards them and would crash any minute.

"GET DOWN!" they yelled and dove under the table. Everyone scrambled out of their seats to get under the table and the piece of metal connected with the top of the dome. Pieces of the dome flew out of place and several large pieces fell down. Two pieces hit the table and almost broke it. The dome was a mess of dust and raining metal where no one could see anything. The horrible screeching sound that accompanied the event did not help things either. Finally after about ten minutes of hell the dust cleared and they could see what crashed.

It was an Arwing, stuck in the roof with its nose pointed down. There was no sign of life, and on the side of the burning Arwing was a green 'S'. The hatch opened and a small green frog slowly crawled out. He smiled at Fox and said, "Slippy reporting for duty, sir." and fell out. He crashed to the ground and the Arwing fell down on top of him. The tip of the arwing stabbed through his head, and the body crushed the remainder of the poor frog.

Everyone had been watching the scene with surprised faces. Fox, Falco, and Krystal looked at each other and bowed their heads. Falco said hoarsely, "well... we've waited for Slippy"


	7. Chapter 6

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Yoshi 4. Peach 5. Daisy 6. Toad 7. Toadette 8. Birdo 9. Hammer Bro 11. Wario 12. Dry Bones 13. Kirby 14. Tiff 15. Tuff 16. King Dedede 17. Metaknight 18. Fox 19. Falco 20. Krystal 21. Peppy::::::::: 22. Waluigi

Waluigi reached a flight of stairs at the end of the tunnel. He ran up the flight two steps at a time. He was soon bathed in sunlight and saw the battlefield. He had been brought to Hyrule Castle and was now on a third floor balcony. Explosions were everywhere, townspeople were running in fear, blood and dead bodies lined the streets.

It was Mushroom Kingdom all over again.

Link walked up to him and gently touched him on the shoulder. "We're ready." he said.

Waluigi nodded and regretfully tore his gaze away from the carnage. They ran down a hallway, a flight of stairs, and into the garden. Link walked over to a large group of warriors in red armor, each one armed with a slingshot and deku nuts, or a sword. Link called out, "Let's get to safety!"

Not the greatest battle cry, but the warriors cheered out and ran across the garden, with Link, Waluigi, and Princess Zelda leading them.

They walked quickly out of a back entrance, ignoring all of the carnage. No one was shooting at them, so they knew that they had a head start. Link led the army into a dense forest and down several winding and complicated paths before Link stopped them altogether.

"This is it!" he said in triumph and stepped behind a hedge, barely visible behind a large tree. He called out, "Rebellion!" and the ground started to shake.

Several warriors got out their weapons, prepared for an attack, but Link only smiled and shook his head. They tree suddenly crashed down, revealing a tunnel with a small R engraved above the tunnel entrance. Link looked at Waluigi for a reaction, but Waluigi was staring in disbelief at the tree, which had crushed one unlucky soul who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Link frowned, but turned towards the soldiers. "Sorry about that, but this is the way to safety!"

The warriors were less trustworthy after that, but they continued. Waluigi walked ahead, but was met with an wall that seemed to materialize right in front of him. Waluigi stepped back, rubbed his nose, and said, "I forgot about this."

Link chuckled and called out, "The army of the Rebellion will rise again!"

The wall disappeared, seemingly disappearing as suddenly as it came. Link walked forward, the army following him; unorganized and almost chaos. Yelling out in loud voices and threatening each other. Link looked nervously at the other end of the tunnel and ran forward. He called out things that no one in the tunnel could make out. When the army reached the end, they were met with a bunch of people cheering.

Waluigi noticed a couple people right at the ends were holding weapons, and wondered if they had sounded like the enemy. If that were true, then Link had just saved them all.

Thousands of people from each realm could be seen. Mostly common enemies, no one specific that Link could point out. Although most of them hated each other, the army's threatening force had forced them to work together. Waluigi could see a couple of toads grouped together and waved at them. They all waved back and looked relieved to see him alive.

A Pichu from the Pokemon realm tugged Link's hand with it's mouth. Link looked down and the Pichu tilted its ears to point him in the right direction. Link nodded and turned to the warriors that had followed him and called out, "Thank you for your trust! You will be safe here! You no longer need to guard me or Zelda"

The guards, though nervous, walked away, leaving Link, Waluigi, and an impatient looking Zelda. "Let's hurry up, Link. You did promise me that we'd see the boss!" she said.

Link nodded to her and followed Pichu, who had started running ahead. Zelda followed Link, but Waluigi took a few more seconds to look around before following Zelda.

--------------------

Toad was lying on a table with a six foot rabbit bandaging his leg. Toadette looked both mad and nervous as the rabbit sighed and stepped back. "That's all I can do." it said and washed its hands.

Toadette looked nervously at Toad, but he nodded and smiled at Toadette. Toadette didn't smile back, which made Toad frown. "What's wrong?" he asked her.

"I don't trust that fox character, especially after he shot you." she replied, laying her hand down softly on Toad's other leg.

Toad only smiled and shook his head, but the rabbit turned off the gushing water, flapped his hands in the air, and said, "If there is one person you should trust with your life, then it's Fox."

"And what's your name?" Toadette asked.

"The name's Peppy: this team's retired pilot and nurse." Peppy replied, as if he had rehearsed it several times before.

At this both of them shook their heads. Toad's eyes gazed to the left of Peppy and his eyes opened wide with fear. He called out, "Get down!" and rolled over the table and onto the floor.

What happened next was utter chaos.

Peppy and Toadette turned around to see the scout that they had shot at earlier standing in the window. He had gotten two friends and all three of them had guns aimed right at Peppy. They fired before he had time to react.

"R-run..." Peppy called out weakly, dropping down with three bullet holes in his chest. The windows had shattered from the force of the bullets and the soldiers had stepped in. Toadette dropped down beside Toad and grabbed his hand. Toadette pulled Toad's arm and they ran for the door.

The soldiers hadn't seen them run, but they heard the metallic sound that the automatic door made as it opened. The soldiers ran for the door, their hands automatically pulling the trigger, and ran through. Bullets scraped the sides of the building; sparks flying outward as they hit, but none hit any bodies. One soldier saw a flash of white as Toad ran down a different path and ran for it. The others followed him and they turned the corner.

The hallway was long with no other connecting doorways. There was no cover and Toad and Toadette were right in the open. Bullets ricocheted off the walls, some inches from their heads. Toadette saw no other option; she grabbed Toad, pulled him close, gave him a kiss on the cheek, picked him up in the other hand, and threw him at the door. She slumped down afterwards and died from a bullet wound through the head, shot by none other than the scout.

Bullets continued to fire around Toad as he flew and things seemed to go in slow motion through his eyes. He heard a crash and several screams as the door shut behind him, all of them coming from the door ahead of him. He dropped down, rolled over, and landed on his good leg. He did the only thing he could think to do.

He sprinted as fast as he could on both legs, ignoring the searing pain each time he stepped on his bad foot, he ran down the second hallway and opened the door to the dome. Dust was in the air from the arwing's crash. Toad could hear the screams echoing off the metal walls, and the rocks hitting the metal floor.

"Intruders!" Toad called out. "They shot Peppy and Toadette!" he was close to tears now, but he felt a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Mario's face looking worried, staring at him. Toad heard footsteps coming from the hallway and Mario pushed him out of the doorway.

"Get down!" Mario yelled and pulled out his handgun. "Six shots..." he grumbled and slid to the side of the door. Fox and Falco ran up to the other side, their guns already in their hands.

"Krystal!" Fox yelled out. "Get the others to the Legend of Zelda tunnel ASAP! Other soldiers might be coming soon."

"Make sure not to go through until we get there!" Mario called to her.

Krystal nodded and mouthed "Good luck" and herded everyone up. The footsteps got louder and closer. They weren't worrying about stealth anymore. The footsteps rounded the corner and Falco fired a warning shot. It hit a soldier in the shoulder by accident. Shots rang out from the tunnel and Falco had to dive back out of the doorway to avoid them. They heard more yelling, but this time they could hear what they were saying.

"Get his arm wrapped up fast! They know we're here!"

"Well how couldn't they? We didn't kill that stupid mushroom!"

"Guys, I'm in pain here!"

"Shut up! They'll hear you."

"I'm still in pain though!"

"Argh, I'll see what's going on."

They heard cautious footsteps heading towards them. Falco prepared to fire, but Fox held him back. The soldier's figure came through the doorway, gun aimed high. Fox shook his head, dropped his gun, and leapt on him. Fox knocked the gun out of the soldier's hands. It flew into the air and Mario caught it inches above the ground. Fox kicked the soldier in the gut, causing him to lean over, and elbowed his back, forcing him to the ground. Fox clamped his hand over the soldier's mouth and put his foot to the soldier's neck.

"Make a sound and you die." said Fox through clenched teeth.

"Man, we'd better check on him." Came the scout's voice from the hallway.

"They might've gotten him!" said the wounded soldier.

"There hasn't been any gunfire."

Fox slackened his grip just enough for the soldier to call out, "They're here! Tell them to fire at this place and get out-" and Falco shot him in the head.

"That son of a bit-" Falco started, but Fox raised his hand and they heard two sets of footsteps running in the other direction.

"We gotta get out of here." was all that Mario said, but all three of them knew what might happen. They finally knew who had shot Slippy down, and at that particular moment the scout and solider had reached the hovering scooter. They jumped on and started elevating.

Mario, Falco, and Fox raced out of the building, but as they turned the final corner they were met with Tiff, Tuff, and Metaknight.

"They escaped, I had to chase them." said Metaknight, in an angry tone.

"We're not kids ya know." Tuff said.

"You don't need to treat us like some." said Tiff.

"We don't have time for this! Right now we gotta move!" growled Falco.

"He's right. Right now there could be a dozen flying ships firing at us. We have to get away from this building as soon as possible." said Mario, already pushing Tuff away.

"Gah! Easy, woulda ya?" said Tuff.

Then, all hell broke loose.

Bullets rang down all around them. No one dared to look up and see where they were coming from. Mario grabbed Tuff and pulled him into a ditch, they couldn't see anyone else but they heard a grunt and something hit the ground. Someone had been shot, but no one could see. The bullets had picked up too much dust.

Silence son followed; the bullets stopped as suddenly as they started. The dust cleared after what seemed like hours. Mario looked up from the ditch and saw the scout driving the flying scooter with the soldier shooting from behind. He tried firing at Mairo, but the gun was out of ammo. With the scooter still moving farther away, both Mario and soldier drew out handguns.

They fired.

The bullets whizzed by just centimeters from each other. One bullet managed to lodge itself in the soldier's forehead, the other landed by Mario's feet, kicking up a small cloud of dust. The soldier dropped from the scooter and onto the ground and Mario heard the scout scream out the soldier's name.

The scout saw Mario, barely more than a speck, and held up his middle finger. He pointed it at Mario, signifying that he'd get revenge.

"Mario!" Fox's troubled voice brought Mario back to reality. He turned around and saw everyone gathered around Tiff, who was on the ground with a bullet wound in her chest. Tuff was holding her close, his tears falling on Tiff's dead body. Blood was coming out of the wound and onto both Tiff and Tuff's clothing, but Tuff didn't care. Another death had really knocked everyone who was there. Fox, Metaknight, and even Falco were lookied worried at them. Mario turned to the speck and swore that he'd get his revenge as well.

He looked down at his gun, put it in his pocket, and said, "five shots"

Tiff could barely open her eyes, but she managed to stay alive enough to say, "I love you tuff, get to safety and stay there. Don't... don't end up like me. Good luck everyone." and she closed her eyes for the final time.


	8. Chapter 7

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Yoshi 4. Peach 5. Daisy 6. Toad 7. Birdo 8. Hammer Bro 9. Wario 10. Dry Bones 11. Kirby 12. Tuff 13. King Dedede 14. Metaknight 15. Fox 16. Falco 17. Krystal 18. Waluigi 19. Zelda 20. Link

Tuff set Tiff down, sniffed, and turned to Mario. Mario put his hand on Tuff's shoulder and said, "Let's leave."

Tuff nodded, but Falco broke the silence by saying, "Holy shit."

Fox groaned and punched Falco in the shoulder. "There's a kid here, don't swear." but the look on Falco's face told him that he wasn't listening, or even felt the punch. "What's wrong?"

Falco, who had a small energy-reader, had pointed it up to the sky and replied, "That blast that they've been charging up could destroy everything within five miles. I've never seen anything so powerful."

Mario turned to Falco and said, "How long?"

Falco shook his head, "Ten minutes at most."

Mario's gaze turned dark. They couldn't run three miles in twelve minutes, let alone the amount that they had to run in ten. The Legend of Zelda realm was five miles away, but they could make it to the Kirby realm and go through the Legend of Zelda realm from there. But who knows how many soldiers were guarding the tunnel by now.

As Mario groaned, Fox turned to Falco and said, "How fast can they go?"

Falco's eyes lit up and he grinned. He said, "Fast enough."

Fox nodded and turned to Metaknight. "You come with us, and you two stay here." and they ran inside.

Two minutes later they flew out of the building, each one driving their own scooter. They stopped only long enough for Tuff to jump onto Fox's and Mario to jump on Metaknight's and take control before they took off again. Fox pointed in one direction and they flew towards it. Five minutes later they met the others at the tunnel. Krystal waved them down as soon as she recognized them and put down her gun.

"Where's Tiff?" she asked.

Mario looked around and said, "where are Dry Bones and Wario?"

"They left. They didn't even tell us where." Krystal said. She thought a few seconds and added, "They left in the direction of the Kirby realm though."

"Oh no," Mario groaned. He got back on his scooter and prepared to fly away, but Fox pulled him off.

"It's too late." He said with no emotion. Mario pulled his arm out of his grip, but he knew that it was useless to argue, so he turned towards the group.

"It's going to be tough guys. The Legend of Zelda realm is fighting, but soon it will fall. If we're lucky, we'll make it to Rebellion before they're fully taken over."

"And if we're not lucky?" King Dedede called out.

"Then we'll find another way around." Mario said and turned towards the tunnel. "Stay close, and be ready for anything."

-----------------------

Wario and Dry Bones had heard from Waluigi using a stolen walkie-talkie from back before Waluigi joined the army. Right as they reached the tunnel they heard a message from Waluigi.

"Come to the Kirby realm's tunnel guys. We're getting out of here!"

What they didn't know was that the voice that came out of the talkie was a soldier leading them into a trap. Dry Bones bounded ahead as they reached the tunnel with two minutes left before the blast was fired.

"Hurry up! I want to get out of this-" a blast from a shotgun sounded, blowing off Dry Bones's shoulder, shutting him up. Wario saw the blast and dove aside as a blast from another gun hit the ground below him. Wario crawled to the top of a hill and took a risk to stand up. He had lost sight of Dry Bones, who had fled to the "safety" of Fox's hideout. A third blast shot out and hit the ground below Wario's feet, causing it to crumble and Wario to lose his balance. He rolled down the hill and landed at the base of a tree. He groaned and felt his back, checking to see if it was broken or not.

A machine gun had joined the shooting and he heard it firing in Dry Bones's direction. Wario dove behind a tree large enough to conceal him. He listened to Dry Bones's screams, then silence. He couldn't see or hear anybody around him, all he knew right now was that either Waluigi had betrayed them or they had just walked into a trap.

Wario heard a large water-sucking sound and saw a flash of red light fly through the air at a negative slope. The blast disappeared behind some trees and was lost from view. He heard a crashing sound and heard a low rumble speedily growing louder. His adrenaline kicked in and he ran as fast as he could towards the tunnel. He somehow found it and ran inside. He kept running, but turned around enough to see three soldiers standing on a hill close to the tunnel who were staring at the growing cloud in wonder. They all screamed and headed towards the tunnel, but were quickly engulfed and burned to death.

Wario made it to the end of the tunnel and dove to the side into some bushes. The cloud shot out almost fifty feet, burning the unfortunate guards that were watching. Wario saw guards running towards the tunnel and hid himself in some nearby trees. He climbed one short tree and placed himself comfortably into a large branch, which sagged under his weight. He saw the tunnel pretty clearly now; the clouds had been reduced to small clouds that could barely leave a burn. The tunnel had collapsed under the intense pressure and large rocks were in the way. The tunnel, which all of them seemed to give off a heavenly glow, had dimmed, and small fires were crackling and burning along the floor, walls, and even the ceiling. The soldiers who had come were inspecting the two large piles of ash that used to be the guards.

While watching this take place, Wario silently mourned for Dry Bones and possibly Waluigi and the others. He also wondered how he would get back to the others if they had made it through. Once the tunnel was cleared, and a soldier was bringing dynamite already, he would somehow make it back to the others.

The dynamite was placed and the fuse was lit. Every soldier stepped several paces back and the dynamite ignited. The smoke cleared, revealing a dark abyss. One soldier stepped into the tunnel, but he ran out calling out, "It's nothing! The tunnel's gone!"

This news shocked Wario, but it was soon replaced with fear. There was no way he could get back now! He was trapped. Unless he somehow made it through to Legend of Zelda, he wasn't joining the others any time soon. He watched the tunnel slowly collapse on it, emitting a dark glow as the tunnel's entrance disappeared forever. The hill that it was built into quickly grew grass over the hole and soon it was like the tunnel had never existed.

Wario knew something must be done to protect this news from getting anywhere else. He dropped down and saw a gleam of silver. A machine gun had been tossed aside! He checked the ammo and aimed it at the twelve soldiers. He fired, the gun buckled under him, but he held firm. The bullets came out one after another, completely taking out all twelve of the soldiers.

Wario was now a murderer.

He groaned and left the smoking gun. He had to get out quickly. He took out a poorly hand-drawn map that he had written down from Mario's official map. He laid it against the trunk of the tree and pointed out the best route he could take. He nodded and put the map away. His plan was to reach the Beanbean Kingdom and seek shelter there.

But to do it, he had to go through the Mushroom Kingdom once more.

----------------------------

Pichu led them to an open clearing with only a table that held fifteen seats. None of them were filled, but each of them had a golden nameplate engraved in the wood in front of each seat, which Waluigi assumed were stuck in the ground. He caught a glimpse of a couple named: Diddy Kong, Eliwood, and briefly wondered who they were. Link sat in a seat with his own name, Zelda sat next to him in Samus Aran's seat. Waluigi chose to stand.

"Thank you. You may leave." said a deep disembodied voice. Pichu nodded and bounded away. The sky slightly darkened and a million dots of light started forming together in a beautiful display. Soon the pieces fit themselves in the right order, revealing a giant right hand.

"Hello." it said, to this day nobody knows how he talks.

"Hello Master Hand." Link replied. Zelda and Waluigi were open mouthed as Master Hand turned to them.

"Zelda, Waluigi. Welcome." it said.

"Has anyone from the Mushroom Kingdom realm come yet?" Waluigi had enough sense to say.

Master Hand shook one finger and said, "Only several toads. I sense that Mario will be coming soon."

Waluigi sighed in relief. That was very good news, but how come there were fourteen other seats, he wondered. Waluigi pondered this, but Master Hand seemed to have read his mind and said, I will explain when the others arrive. Your mission is not complete yet."

Waluigi nodded and looked at the other nameplates. He could see Mario's name, Metaknight, Mewtwo, Pit, Captain Olimar, Krystal, Samus, Diddy Kong, Eliwood, Ness, Master Hand's name, Captain Falcon, Prince Peasley, and Link. All names he recognized, but one name at the direct opposite end of the table from Master Hand's seat (like he needed one) was a name that he had never heard before.

Master Chief...

--------------------

Mario's group had sprinted to nearby trees as soon as they left the tunnel. No soldiers where in sight, but they could hear some nearby screams, gunfire, and several explosions. Mario shut out these sounds and lead the group through the forest. Fifteen of them had made it to the forest and he intended not to lose another. They moved through the forest as quietly as possible. Mario soon found the tunnel, but saw five soldiers grouped together after hearing the tree collapsing. All five of them were looking at the crushed warrior's body.

He groaned and waved Falco, Krystal, and Fox over. "Think you can kill them all?" he asked.

All three of them nodded and, without so much as uttering a word, fired several shots at the soldiers. Four soldiers collapsed, but the last one had been missed and he started yelling out. He opened his mouth wide to take in a breath and got a blast in the mouth. The blast came out the other side and burned his mouth up, eventually killing him. But the damage was done. At once they heard other soldiers running towards them.

Unknown to the group, a sniper had crawled up to a nearby tree and was taking aim.

Falco, Fox, and Krystal held their guard, shooting every soldier that came up the hill. Mario called out, "Go to the tree!" and ushered everyone else to hurry up. He said the secret words out loud and the tree collapsed once more. "Get inside!" he yelled out.

The sniper fired.

The blast went through Birdo's head, completely taking out her left eye, and taking out a chunk of her brain as it came out her other side.

"We got a sniper!" Mario called out and ran inside himself. He left the door open for Fox, Krystal, and Falco to run through once they could. "You only have thirty seconds!"

Falco yelled out incoherent words and shot randomly at the top of a tree. They heard a body fall to the ground with a sniper rifle in his arms. Fox and Krystal ran in, but Falco shot three more soldiers down before running inside himself. By the time he ran inside the wall's password had been said and everyone was walking inside. Yoshi was dragging Birdo's body with him. He growled out and kicked Mario's shin, saying, "This is all your fault! She'd still be alive if it wasn't for you, you son of a bi-" and he got a mouthful of fist from Falco.

"Shut up! You idiot! You'd be dead too if it wasn't for him." Falco growled.

Yoshi wiped his mouth of any blood and stood up. He flicked Falco off and walked ahead. Falco flicked Yoshi off as well and they reached the end of the tunnel.

Thousands of various enemies joined together clapping for them, even several Goombas and Koopas were cheering for their arch enemies. Mario noticed several toads circled around a tree and waved to them. They waved back and one even jumped up and down calling out Mario's name.

Everyone else was staring at all of this in amazement. That is, until Luigi let go of Toad and he fell down. Luigi mumbled an apology and picked him back onto his feet, but if brought everyone back to the matter at hand.

"We need a medic!" Krystal called out, trying to make her voice heard over the cheering of the crowd. "We have wounded!"

At once two toads wearing white coats walked up to them. "Who?" One of them asked.

"That would be me." Toad said, smiling weakly.

They walked over to him, talking to him in soft voices, and lead him away. Mario turned around and said, "Now you will know the truth." He started walking towards the clearing that held Waluigi, Link, Zelda, and Master Hand. The others just wondering what the truth was...

---------------------------------

In a large building in the direct middle of the Final Destination realm on the tallest floor was a tall man in dark green armor sitting at his desk. He moved the chair alone, listening to the sound of the wheels squeaking against the floor. He was moving a small wooden soldier with the tip of his finger, thinking about what had happened.

Soon the entire Nintendo World would be his. His master's goal would soon be accomplished, his mission complete. He stepped out of the chair and paced the room, occasional glancing out of the giant window that filled up most of one wall. All that had to be done would be to take control of each of the fifteen realms, and he had already taken over one with several more within his grasp. His soldiers, or pawns as he likes to call them, were rushing each of the realms as he spoke. And his ten supreme generals were each leading an army into each of the larger realms. And yet, something was nagging him in the back of his mind, as if something was telling him that it would all go wrong. He just ignored it and walked back to his desk, picking up a golden nameplate with a name engraved in it.

Master Chief.


	9. Chapter 8

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Yoshi 4. Peach 5. Daisy 6. Toad 7. Hammer Bro 8. Wario 9. Kirby 10. Tuff 11. King Dedede 12. Metaknight 13. Fox 14. Falco 15. Krystal 16. Waluigi 17. Zelda 18. Link

In his mind he was picturing how he had made it to the top. From his master's first message to assassinating the original "man in charge." In his mind these tasks had been easy, but the entire process was a grueling three months. But, in the end he had accomplished his goal.

Master Chief continues to think these things for several hours over the past few days. Today it only lasted a few minutes before the only door to the room burst open. The shadow in the doorway was the scout that Mario's group had faced earlier.

"Sir! The Kirby realm is under your command! One of your supreme generals is leading it already" he said, knowing full well that the general was disobeying orders and was waiting for the punishment.

"Let him stay. He and his troops have earned it." Master Chief said. He was in a good mood and was willing to overlook the general's mistake. In his head he was thinking, "only thirteen to go."

The scout frowned a little, disappointed that there would be no punishment for him, but Master Chief didn't notice and continued, "Before you go, tell troops V and R to attack the Beanbean kingdom realm."

The scout nodded and said, "Right away, sir." and left the room.

------------------------

"Welcome Mario!" Link said, shaking one of his oldest friend's hands.

"Great to see you too, Link!" Mario said with a bright smile on his face.

"Good to see you made it." Waluigi said, also smiling.

"M-Mario?" Luigi's timid voice spoke from behind Mario's shoulder. "What's that?" he asked, pointing at Master Hand.

"I am the RR of the Rebellion Realm." he replied in his deep voice.

"RR?" Fox asked.

"Realm Representative." He sighed and said, "I guess we'll start with that first." And he began:

"Up until a few years ago, several of Nintendo's creations lived in one universe. If you could pilot an Arwing or a spaceship then you could visit any other place. Until Super Mario Galaxy was announced two years ago, that is. Nintendo soon realized that they had to create a brand new world for its newer franchises, or forced to include places like Cornia or Hyrule in Super Mario Galaxy, so they created fourteen realms.

"With these fourteen realms there had to be something to hold that power and control it. So they chose fourteen individuals to hold their realm's power. Five of us "Realm Representatives" are here right now. Ten others are still lost and need to be brought back, but I'll speak more of that later.

"If one of those fourteen RR's died, then their realm, and anything in that realm, disappears. This is why I was revived. After Melee I was forced into an alternate universe, but Nintendo revived me and absorbed some of my power to create this realm, which they codenamed Rebellion. Nintendo knew that some of their enemies were going to try and attack this world, so they chose me as the RR of Rebellion. I told every other RR to come to the Rebellion realm with several warriors in preparation for the attack.

"Unfortunately that message got to Master Chief as well. He told what he calls his "master" and was soon sent to this place to take over, as we would call it, the world. You see, in the Final Destination realm is where Nintendo's secret army of hundreds of thousands of holographic humans that were trained to obey only one person. At first it was my brother, Crazy Hand, but someone called a mutiny and he was... killed...

"The person, or animal as some people call him, who called the mutiny became the new leader. He was about to call the invasion when he was shot in the head and killed, and now Master Chief is the new leader. He soon called the attack and here we are, with our world being taken over."

Master Hand finished on a sad note, but he had indifference in his voice. By the time he had finished the only people who were standing were Fox and Falco. "But why did Master Chief get the message that you sent to only RR's?" Fox asked.

"Because the RR of Final Destination, which should have been Crazy Hand, was mistakenly placed in the soul of Master Chief." Master Hand said with a touch of anger and jealousy.

"So you're like the wise man?" Falco said with a grin at one of the worst times to make a joke.

Everyone feared Master Hand to yell, but he only chuckled and waved a finger. "More or less." Falco finally understood and he looked down, embarrassed. He muttered an apology and Master Hand chuckled again. "It's alright. Do not be embarrassed. I am quite fine with my current form. Considering I'm bigger than most people also lightens my mood." He chuckled again.

"Uh, earlier you said that there are ten other RR's that aren't here and-" Luigi was interrupted by Master Hand waving himself around to silence him.

"That's the problem. We'll need to get the other ten back, and as many reinforcements as you can manage." he said.

"You mean we need to go back out there?" Peach asked with a fearful tone.

Master Hand shook his index finger once again and said, "Only Mario, Link, Metaknight, and Krystal have to go. The rest of you may enjoy yourselves here."

The four nodded and looked at the others. Master Hand said, "You have an hour to say your goodbyes." and floated away.

---------------------------

Wario had made it through the Kirby realm and into the Mushroom Kingdom realm with little trouble. The soldiers and guards were clueless and he had walked by them easily. "Heck, I could have worn a sign that said 'please kill me before I escape' and they wouldn't have noticed" he thought. He walked through the tunnel and the grin of pride he was wearing fell from his face.

The city was in ruins; several houses were on fire, the castle that had once stood so proud and tall was now a burning piece of debris, having been blown up by a ton of dynamite. Several hundred toad bodies lined the streets. Wario's mouth dropped open in shock and dismay. He looked around, trying to see any survivors, but didn't find any. He quickly ran into the city and prepared to avoid any soldiers he might encounter.

--------------------------------

"I'm going too."

"No you aren't."

"Well why not?"

"Because I don't want to lose you! This could be life threatening and we may not come back at all, so I don't want you to be part of that mission either!" Mario yelled out. Luigi only stood there with his mouth open, preparing to give an excuse, but no sound came out. He was prepared for everything but that.

Peach, Daisy, Yoshi, Toad, Waluigi, and Hammer Bro were watching them argue from the beds in the hospital that Toad had been taken to. They had split up from the others and as soon as they got to Toad's room Luigi and Mario began to argue.

"I want to help. Why can't you see that I'm just as good as you are? I'm going whether you want me to or not!" Luigi called out, close to tears.

Mario only nodded with a grim expression on his face and said, "Fine, but I hope you know that you're risking your life."

"Weren't we already doing that?" Luigi grinned. Mario nodded again and turned to the others.

"Peach, Toad, Daisy, you guys know that you can't come, correct?" He paused for them to nod and didn't continue until they all did. "Yoshi, Waluigi, Hammer Bro, the choice is yours."

"I'm coming" Yoshi said immediately.

"I am too." Waluigi said shortly after.

Hammer Bro remained silent, so Mario walked up to him, smiled in a reassuring way, and said, "No one will think any less of you if you stay."

"Hey, I'm coming." Hammer Bro grinned. "You can't leave me behind."

Mario grinned back. He said, "So there's at least five of us then." and turned to Peach. She was looking at the floor with a sad and worried expression on her face, as was Daisy, so the Mario Brothers walked over to them.

"We'll be back. You can trust us." Mario said.

Peach smiled, "I know. But I can't help worrying." she said.

"It's okay, I'll make it back. But you know I need to do this." Luigi said.

"I understand, but there's something you need to know before you leave." Daisy said, and she whispered it into Luigi's ear.

"Good luck guys!" Toad called out, holding his wounded leg.

"Thanks" said Waluigi, and the five of them left, Luigi with a large smile on his face.

---------------------------------

"I'm going too!" King Dedede said in a loud voice.

"I never said you couldn't!" Metaknight yelled back.

The four of them had walked to a small tree and were sitting on opposite ends of it with their backs to each other across the tree.

"Puyo!" Kirby called out to nobody in particular.

"Glad to hear it Kirby." Said Metaknight, and Kirby smiled.

"Sorry guys, but I'm staying." said Tuff.

"It's good that you do." said Metaknight.

"But I am getting revenge." he finished.

"Be careful with that. Revenge is the worst path you can take."

"Thank you. For everything." Tuff said.

The three of them stood up and walked away, leaving Tuff in the shadow of the tree.

-------------------------------

Twenty minutes later the eight of them were joined by Link, Fox, Krystal, and Falco, and ten minutes later Master Hand arrived.

"How many weapons do you have?" Master Hand asked.

"Four laser guns, a hammer, two swords, a bow and several arrows, and several bombs." Link reported.

"That won't do at all." Master Hand, shaking himself around. "Follow me." He floated to a large camouflage tent and pushed them through the flap. "Choose two."

Inside were hundreds of racks filled with various guns, sizes varying from Mario's small handgun to a bazooka launcher that required two people to carry. Several Deku nuts with boomerangs had their own section and a section filled with several close range weapons were directly opposite that.

Link kept his Master Sword and chose another one handed sword. Fox, Falco, and Krystal each kept their guns and chose two other handguns. Kirby chose a large hammer only. King Dedede grabbed onto a handgun clumsily and accidentally fired it, nearly taking off Falco's head in the process. He grumbled an apology and stuck with his own hammer and another, much larger, hammer. Metaknight chose another short sword to accompany his own. The other five, being the one ones with thumbs, each chose two handguns and a shotgun. Mario, Luigi, and Waluigi also chose a bow and thirty arrows in a large quiver on their backs. For each of the guns was plenty of ammo, enough for over ten rounds.

"Now it'll do!" said Master Hand, clearly impressed with their newly acquired weapons.

---------------------------------

On the top of the rubble of Princess Peach's castle were six soldiers. One of them called out, "Found something." and pulled out Toadsworth's lifeless charred body.

"Heh, looks like that toad who's always with Peach." said a deep gruff voice behind them.

The soldiers turned around and saw King Bowser standing right behind them. He had a large star on his chest and, even though he looked comical in his general hat, looked extremely menacing. A ten foot tall monster with flaming red hair and two inch long claws and talons, razor sharp teeth, a tough outer shell with spikes on the back, and a large mouth capable of producing red hot flames.

Each of the soldiers shuddered as he walked up to them. He took Toadsworth's body from the soldier and took a giant bite out of its head. He chewed with his mouth open so that the soldiers could see the disgusting meat in his mouth and was pleased to see them avoid looking. Striking fear into the hearts of your soldiers was a key part in any leadership job, but to Bowser it came naturally.

He took another giant bite, enjoying the taste of the meat, and said, "I have seen hundreds of toads, but why have you not killed Mario or his friends yet?"

"W-We're trying!" a soldier pleaded. "They seemed to have escaped."

"I should expect no less. Well, we'll have to corner them before they reach the Beanbean Kingdom and get help. Send ten soldiers to guard that tunnel and have thirty more in the hills, hidden. Have soldiers patrolling the streets. Make sure they do not shoot to kill, only to capture." Bowser said. "I want to kill them myself" and he turned around quickly, so fast that the soldier in front of him had no time to dodge, and completely sliced the soldier in half with his tail.

"Now go before you end up like him!" Bowser said to the other soldiers while pointing at the skewered soldier. The five of them took off quickly, making Bowser chuckle. Soon he would have his revenge on the person that completely humiliated him. His anger caused him to breathe flames thirty feet into the air and his growl could be heard for miles.

---------------------------

Master Chief was passing the flours again when another soldier ran in with a smile on his face. "Five of your supreme generals are ruling the Mushroom Kingdom, F-Zero, Pikmin, and Kid Icarus realms! We have fully taken over them." he said in a cheerful voice.

Master Chief simply nodded, but inside he was ecstatic. Six realms already taken over, this only left nine with three already under attack. "Thank you. But before you leave, I take it Bowser is the one ruling Mushroom Kingdom."

"Who else?" the soldier said and his grin grew wider. Master Chief even grinned at that. "Very well. Report to me when we have taken over any others."

"Thank you, sir." The soldier bowed and left.

-----------------------------

Wario was just entering the tunnel to the Beanbean Kingdom when he heard the roar and saw the flames. "Bowser!" He growled in anger. He really wanted someone to fight, but now was not the time. He gulped and ran into the Beanbean Kingdom realm.

He was met with a sword in his neck and a voice saying, "Soldier scum."

Wario was nervous at first, but he grinned as soon as he recognized the voice. He forced the sword away from his neck and said, "Do I look like a soldier to you?"

The person dropped the sword and stepped off of his hovering device. He flicked his hair back, gave a large laugh, and said, "Sorry about that Wario. Can't be too careful, you know."

"It's alright," Wario said. "It's great to see you again...

...Prince Peasley"


	10. Chapter 9

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Yoshi 4. Hammer Bro 5. Kirby 6. King Dedede 7. Metaknight 8. Fox 9. Falco 10. Krystal 11. Waluigi 12. Link :::::::::: 13. Wario 14. Prince Peasley

The twelve of them quickly ran out of the tunnel and swiftly dove into the nearby trees. Without any signal they ran from tree to tree like a well oiled machine. Even Kirby, the shortest and least stealthful, managed to keep up. They made it to the Mushroom Kingdom tunnel without incident and ran in. Luckily there were no guards at the tunnel and they had enough time to dive into some foliage before anyone heard.

After a few moments to catch their breath they looked around to see any nearby guards but all twelve of them stopped when they saw the carnage of the city. Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Waluigi, and Hammer Bro's mouths dropped open and eyes widened. Link, who had seen what happened to his own realm, felt their pains and waited a few minutes before saying, "So far so good. We need to keep moving while we still have surprise."

They ran into the city, making sure to keep as quiet as possible, pretty quickly without running into any soldiers. They made it to the end of the city and saw the ten guards standing in front of the Beanbean Kingdom tunnel.

"Well that's just great!" Falco groaned.

One guard saw them and called out, "There they are!" At once all ten guards fired sleeping darts at them, though they thought they were bullets. They dove behind the nearby buildings and returned fire. Two soldiers dropped to the ground with arrows in their chests. Mario knocked another arrow and fired, hitting one soldier in the leg. Luigi overshot his arrow by several yards, yet he managed to hit a hidden soldier in the shoulder.

It was the soldier's turns to return fire. They fired another barrage of darts and one hit Fox in the neck before he could hide. He dropped to the ground and the fluid knocked him out. Falco ran to Fox and removed the dart. He pulled Fox behind a building before falling to the ground himself. Krystal felt both of their pulses and said, "They're only unconscious. They're fine."

"Well we aren't!" King Dedede yelled, for all of the other soldiers in hiding had jumped out and decided to charge. They kept firing at the soldiers but could not hold them off before the soldiers made it within range of them. Yoshi was shot down first, followed by King Dedede, Waluigi, and Hammer Bro before they started to take action. Several soldiers were dead on the ground already, but Mario decided to get to higher ground. He jumped onto the building nearest to them and pulled Luigi and Krystal up with him. Metaknight and Kirby managed to jump up as well, but Link was shot down as he started to climb. The five of them were fighting off at least twenty. The soldiers had gotten smart and were climbing up a separate building on the opposite side. This left a few seconds of silence before the soldiers made it to the top and fired at them. Krystal was shot and dropped to the ground. Metaknight and Kirby were also shot but were small enough to remain on top of the building. Mario pulled Luigi behind a pipe that extended 10 feet from the roof. The soldiers all charged at the building and jumped over the gap to the other side. They outnumbered Luigi and Mario six to one and they quickly shot them both before they did any more damage. Finally Mario dropped to the ground and lost consciousness.

-------------------

Wario and Prince Peasley talked about the war as they walked to Beanbean Castle. "The armies have only just begun coming. Our soldiers, of whom we have many, are easily taking them down." said Prince Peasley.

"So did we, at the time, but now Mushroom Kingdom is in ruins. There are thousands, maybe millions, of soldiers." said Wario in a gloomy tone. "I don't think we have a chance."

Prince Peasley laughed, "We have a chance. It's only fourteen against one, you know!" he said cheerfully.

"Fourteen against one?" asked Wario, who hadn't heard the story yet.

"You haven't heard?" Prince Peasley gasped and, when Wario shook his head, began to explain.

---------------------

Cackletta...

A beast among the bats. Said to be born through a bat and somehow morphed into a demon. Able to control lightning and powerful enough to destroy an entire city. She was defeated once by Mario and Luigi, but now she was leading the troops into battle to complete the domination of the kingdom that she once failed to take over. With a supreme general's hat on and a thirst for revenge, she thought over her two plans. The first plan, which had been foiled by Mario and Luigi, was to use trickery and deception.

Now all she used was brute force.

---------------------

"Sir! Sorry to disturb you but Cackletta is leading the troops to Beanbean Kingdom!" said a nervous soldier who had burst into Master Chief's office.

"Is that all?" Master Chief asked, tightening his grip on the handgun hidden in his pocket.

"No. The Earthbound Realm has been successfully taken over, and Petey Piranha is leading it!" said the soldier.

Master Chief released his gun, glad and a little depressed, that he would not have to shoot this poor soldier. "Thanks you," he said. "Petey may keep his position for now."

"I'll go tell him that, sir." The soldier said and left the room.

Master Chief walked over to a chalkboard that was filled with a table listing all of the 15 realms. He checked off Earthbound, making seven realms. Almost half way until every realm was taken over.

Out of all his thousands of soldiers, none were real except for his ten supreme generals. Each soldier had emotions, but none had a family... or a past. Therefore, Master Chief could send them to their deaths without guilt. The only worry that Master Chief had, and a small one at that, was that there might be a resistance somehow making it to one of the supreme generals and killing him. Or if any of the Realm Representatives were killed and a supreme general disappeared with that realm. It was only a small concern, but it would soon become a large one after the group wakes up.

---------------------

The world was fuzzy to Mario's eyes as he struggled to keep them focused. The sky was a dark blue and the moon was beginning to peak over the horizon. Mario's eyes finally cleared up, but he still couldn't see well in the darkness. He could feel something lumpy under his feet. He looked down and saw that his legs were on top of King Dedede's unconscious body. Mario looked around and saw the shadows of all eleven of the others.

He rubbed his eyes and stood up. They were in a dark room with only a small cot and a sink as furniture. Steel walls were on three sides of the room and the fourth was covered with bars. They had been brought to a jail cell.

A light had turned on in the hallway to the right and Mario pressed his face against the bars to get a closer look. He saw two hammer bros; one holding a torch and the other holding a large hammer. They walked up to Mario's cell and saw him glaring at them.

"Well look at the big shot now." one grinned.

"I guess he's not all he's cracked up to be." The other laughed.

"What do you want?" Mario growled.

"Relax; we're not here for you."

"Really? Then who are you for?" Mario said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Our traitor brother." One spat in the direction of the bodies.

Immediately Mario reached his arm out and it found the hammer bro's neck. He pushed his other arm through and locked hands. He pulled his arms towards the bars, pinning the hammer bro's neck against the bars, and began to choke the hammer bro.

The hammer bro was sputtering, gasping for air and crying, before the other banged his hammer onto the bars. The reaction was enough to loosen Mario's grip and allow the hammer bro to escape.

"I'm gonna get you for that!" The hammer bro growled and massaged his neck. The other called for reinforcements and two soldiers came. One soldier grabbed the front of Mario's overalls while the other shot a dart into his arm.

Mario dropped, but remained conscious long enough to see the four of them grab Hammer Bro's body and drag him away. Then the world grew dark and he blacked out.

--------------------------

Mario woke up several hours later and found out that the others had woken up a long time ago. Each of them was wondering where hammer bro was. Mario explained the best that he could and by the time he had finished all of them were extremely angry.

"What's going to happen to him?" Asked Luigi in a fearful tone.

"Why'd they take him?" Fox yelled out, more to anyone outside their cell than inside.

"I don't know, but where there's hammer bros there's Bowser." Mario said and the questions started up once more.

"Bowser!" Luigi called out, clearly worried.

"How could you know?" asked Krystal.

"Who?" said a clueless King Dedede.

"Someone you do not want to mess with." said Yoshi.

"Guys!" Waluigi suddenly called out, "Where are our weapons?"

And at this, everyone checked their pockets. Everyone's weapons had been taken away. Everything except for two of Link's bombs, a knife that Fox had kept, sheathed, in his boot, and Mario's handgun, which he had put in his overall pocket and kept secret from everybody.

"Well that's just great!" Falco yelled in anger. "We lost all of those good weapons and now they're on the enemies' side!"

Suddenly they heard a large group of footsteps and at least three dozen soldiers came into view. "Do not resist, you must follow us." said one and they opened up the cell.

Everyone followed obediently, though Falco lashed out at every soldier that bumped into him. They were led down several corridors before reaching a doorway. No soldiers passed through, but they pushed the eleven of them through the door and locked it shut behind them.

The first thing they noticed was that they were standing in a small arena. Thousands of soldiers seemed to be cheering and watching. The noise they created was deafening. Some soldiers were pointing to something about their heads, so they turned around and looked.

On a wooden spear above them, sticking out of the wall was their very own Hammer Bro. The spear had been pierced through his chest and dried blood was all around the wound. His arms and legs were limp, but the worst part was his eyes. They weren't closed like someone would do to their fallen comrade respectfully. Instead, they were opened wide with shock. His mouth was also opened wide, and Mario could only picture that they had done this only a few second after Hammer Bro woke up.

Mario's anger finally got the best of him and he faced the stands yelling, "Where's Bowser! Show your face, you coward!"

Some soldiers applauded, some booed, most laughed and mocked him. Yet all were pointing at a throne directly across from Hammer Bro. In is sat, with one leg over another and his teeth shining as he grinned, Bowser.

Bowser got up from his throne, set one foot on the top of the banister, and jumped. He landed with a loud, ground shaking, crash. Mario felt the ground move under his feet. He kept his balance, not even showing signs of trouble. Bowser gave a loud laugh and pointed a finger at Mario.

"You want me, you've got me!" he laughed again and breathed a wall of flames between the two of them.

Mario felt the heat on his face but only squinted from the light that the flames were giving off. The others stepped back to avoid the flames and Bowser laughed again.

"Scared of a little fire?" he taunted. "This should be fun."

Mario jumped back to the others and whispered, "We need to get out. If we even defeat Bowser then the soldiers will come after us. If we escape, we'll have-" but Bowser roared and charged at them before Mario could finish. They jumped aside in different directions, but this only enraged Bowser. He charged after Falco, the closest one to him, but Falco only jumped over Bowser's head and laughed.

Bowser growled, "Fine! Don't play fair and I won't!" He clapped his hands and five hammer bros came through the door. They each attacked someone close while Bowser continued to charge at random people.

One poor hammer bro got too close to Kirby and was sucked up and swallowed. Kirby absorbed the hammer bro and transformed into Hammer Bro Kirby, complete with a helmet and a large hammer. Kirby ran to Bowser, who was facing Fox and had his back to Kirby, and hit Bowser across the head. Bowser growled and turned around, saw Kirby, and laughed.

"You want to face me? You're barely two feet tall!" he laughed, but Kirby remained still with his hammer raised.

"Puyo!" Kirby called out.

"Wait, what did he say?" said a confused Bowser.

The others regrouped and Metaknight said quietly, "He said that he'd hold Bowser off while we escape."

King Dedede stole a hammer from one of the unconscious hammer bros and said, "Excellent!" He raised the hammer and hit the wall twice, each with a loud bang. The crowd was roaring so loudly that nobody heard either bang or the wall crumbling. They all ran out, but Mario looked back at Kirby and wondered if he should be fighting as well. Unfortunately he looked too long and a soldier finally noticed. Mario heard him yell and ran out to follow the others, leaving Kirby and Bowser behind.

Kirby charged at Bowser with his newly acquired hammer raised high above his head. He swung down, but Bowser blocked the hammer with one hand and grabbed the handle with the other. He pulled the hammer above his head, carrying Kirby with it. Bowser let go of the hammer and punched Kirby, hard, with each fist. Kirby flew five feet higher and lost his hammer bro ability, but he landed on his feet after doing several flips.

Bowser laughed and charged at Kirby again with his claws out. Kirby ran to the nearest hammer bro body and sucked it up, regaining his powers. Kirby waited until the last second before swinging his hammer up. The hammer connected with Bowser's jaw and knocked him back, but Kirby followed up with a swing to the skull, knocking Bowser to the ground.

Kirby kept the hammer and waited for Bowser to move. He waited for three minutes before Kirby was satisfied enough to run out of the hole and disappear into the city after his friends.


	11. Chapter 10

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Yoshi 4. Kirby 5. King Dedede 6. Metaknight 7. Fox 8. Falco 9. Krystal 10. Waluigi 11. Link ::::::::::12. Wario 13. Prince Peasley 14. Queen Beanbean

"Sir!" A soldier burst through the door, "Bowser has been defeated!" He was out of breath, having traveled from the Mushroom Kingdom to this building.

"Excuse me?" Master Chief asked, not quite understanding.

"Cracked on the skull twice. Only just this morning!" said the soldier.

"By whom?" asked Master Chief, finally understanding and getting more shocked by the minute.

"By a pink ball that could eat bodies whole!" said the soldier.

"Who else?"

"No one, sir. The ball defeated Bowser alone. But there were ten others who managed to escape!"

"Descriptions!" Master Chief demanded.

"Well, one was a green lizard with a red saddle on his back and walked like a man." The soldier began. "A tall blue bird that was wearing a white jacket. Two tall foxes; one male and brown, the other blue and female."

"Krystal!" Master Chief blurted out, for it was the only description he had remembered.

"Excuse me, sir?" The soldier had heard his outburst and was looking confused.

"Sorry, continue."

"A giant, light blue penguin in a red robe, a ball with giant wings and wearing a silver mask."

"Metaknight," growled Master Chief, quietly this time.

"A very tall, thin man with a large, pink nose. The two brothers most people recognized as Mario and Luigi."

"Mario," growled Master Chief.

"And finally, a man with pointed ears, wearing a green tunic."

"Link." said Master Chief. "Well is that all?"

"No, sir. They were heading towards the Beanbean Kingdom realm before they were captured, so guards have been placed there just in case." The soldier finished.

"Very well. You may leave." said Master Chief, completely enraged by the news. He started pacing as soon as the door was shut. "Mario, Krystal, Link, and Metaknight working together. Going to Beanbean Kingdom? Could it be that they're... no. They couldn't. It's impossible." He wouldn't be sure until he got word from Cackletta once she finished taking over the Beanbean Kingdom realm. He sat down at his desk, put his head in his arms, and began to sleep.

-----------------------

The soldiers in the Kirby realm that Wario had shot with the hidden machine gun had lost a lot of blood even if they weren't already dead. As soon as the medic came a few hours later, most of them were dead. Only one extremely lucky soldier, for he had been shot in the shoulder in the only spot where barely any blood could leak out, was alive. The medic began to seal his wound, but had to help him up for he couldn't move himself. The medic asked several questions, but the soldier only shook his head and said, "I have news that could help us win! I need to see Master Chief!"

After a few minutes the medic finally gave up and helped the bandaged soldier limp towards Final Destination with the hopes that the soldier actually had information that could check the direction that the war is going in.

--------------------------

Before the group had been captured in the Mushroom Kingdom realm, Prince Peasley had finally finished explaining everything to Wario. Wario had accepted everything without questions. Mainly because he couldn't come up with a better reason, but by that time they had reached Beanbean Castle. The guards stood aside to let them pass, but Wario noticed that they had glared suspiciously at him.

They walked through the main doors, straight up the large two steps, and reached the throne room. When they entered the room, Queen Beanbean was sitting in her throne, grinning and asleep.

The first thought that came to Wario's mind was, "Finally someone fatter than me!"

The expression of surprise must've been on Wario's face because Prince Peasley chuckled and said, "Don't worry. I know what you're thinking, but she's a nice, caring woman who always has a smile on her face."

"Oh, right." said Wario. "I hope we find the others soon, but for now I can rest here where it's safe."

Suddenly a guard ran in and called out, "Sir! Cackletta's army has broken through the tunnel and is heading towards the castle!"

"Well that didn't last long." Wario groaned and followed Prince Peasley out of the room.

They ran to the castle entrance and saw dark clouds coming towards them from the large mountain a few miles away. They heard an old cackle echoing out as a flash of lightning hit the ground. The army of over two thousand soldiers was coming towards them.

"We must take shelter." came Queen Beanbean's voice from behind them. She had woken up and, though she was frowning, had a trace of a smile on her mouth.

"Very well." Prince Peasley turned to Wario. "Is it safe where you come from?"

Wario shook his head, making Prince Peasley sigh. "Have you been to Jungle Japes yet?"

Wario shook his head again, but this time Prince Peasley grinned. "They let's go-" he turned around and saw Queen Beanbeack asleep again. "Tomorrow." he finished and they had to drag her back to her throne to sleep.

Wario looked confused, "Why do we have to wait?" He asked.

"Because, she's the queen!" came Prince Peasley's voice from the throne room.

Wario got his own small room, but he didn't take any time to enjoy the scenery and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

------------------------

Mario and the others had sprinted through the city as soon as they left the arena. Several soldiers had shot at them, but all had missed. They reached the exact spot where they had been shot down before and searched for any weapons. Luigi uncovered a quiver with a few arrows, Yoshi found a shotgun, Falco found his and Fox's own handguns, and Metaknight found his signature sword even though the place had been cleaned up. Luigi gave his arrows to Mario, who accepted them graciously and handed Luigi the handgun that he had found.

After another unsuccessful search, they counted the number of guards: twelve. They counted down from five out loud and fired. Each soldier was shot and killed within ten seconds. Link ran to the soldiers carefully and checked each one of them. He looked around and finally motioned for them to follow.

What they didn't know was that Kirby had caught up to them and was following them into the tunnel. He said, "Puyo!" and the others jumped and stuck their guns in his face. When they saw who is was they all let out a sigh of relief and lowered their guns.

"Welcome back, Kirby." said Metaknight. "Puyo!" The others looked at Metaknight with their eyebrows raised high. "He said he beat him up good." he said. This lightened the mood and they gave nervous chuckles. Then they continued into the Beanbean Kingdom realm.

----------------------

After being splashed by at least twenty full buckets of ice cold water, Bowser finally woke up. His head, though it managed not to crack under the force of the hammer, was throbbing in pain. He heard a deep voice snickering behind him and said in an annoyed tone, "Shut up, Ganondorf!"

Ganondorf, wearing a pointed hat with a supreme general's star on it, picked Bowser up onto his feet and continued snickering. "Nice job handling that puffball."

"I didn't expect that last move!"

"You got outsmarted."

"I told you to help if I needed it!"

"I didn't see anyone I hated." Ganondorf grinned and continued to laugh.

This time it was Bowser's turn to laugh. "So you don't hate Link anymore?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Link was there too." Bowser laughed.

Ganondorf's eyes widened. "WHAT!" He yelled.

"That's right. I saw Link in the arena too." Bowser continued laughing. Ganondorf's eyes narrowed and dark energy began forming in his fist. He raised his arm back and hit the wall calling out, "Warlock Punch!"

The wall broke outwards, sending rocks and debris everywhere. Bowser stopped laughing but continued to grin behind Ganondorf's back. "I'll get Link eventually." he growled and walked away from Bowser.

---------------------

Master Chief was still sleeping angrily when a second soldier walked into the room with a third soldier leaning on him. "Sir! We have some good news!" one said.

"Actually, only I do." The wounded soldier glared at the other and stepped forward. "You see, the tunnel connecting the Star Fox and Kirby realms was destroyed. I don't know how, but I think it was from a powerful weapon. It was from the other side so I couldn't see what caused it."

Master Chief's eyes grew wider, for he knew what he was talking about. He had recently sent a ship to the Star Fox realm just yesterday to keep lookout, but it must have fired the cannons at something threatening. The answer to the war was that ship. He had to separate the realms from each other using the ship's powerful cannon.

"Send word to the _Destroyer_'s crew to use the cannons to destroy the tunnels connecting the Star Fox and Mushroom Kingdom realm! Also, get the Wolf Squad to guide the ship to the tunnels. They'll know where it is." Master Chief said. The two soldiers nodded and they ran off, leaving Master Chief to his thoughts.

A few minutes later a fourth soldier ran in, also with good news. "Sir! King K. Rool's army has taken over Jungle Japes!"

Master Chief was practically grinning at this point. He told the soldier to leave and, as soon as he left, walked over to the chalkboard and checked Jungle Japes off of the list. Eight realms down, with Star Fox basically captured which means only six were left. The only realms still fighting were Beanbean Kingdom, Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Metroid, Legend of Zelda, and Rebellion. "The war is coming to a close." said Master Chief with satisfaction and he sat at his desk, waiting for more news.

-----------------------------

Bullet Bills...

A missle with a face and an explosive surprise. Possible the most destructive weapon anyone could have. Mainly because they release a giant explosion as they hit, but also because they can change their direction towards the nearest target within range. They're the first choice in any battle, and Cackletta's army had plenty of them.

Mario heard one as soon as they reached the Beanbean Kingdom. He called out, "Run!" and sprinted away. Everyone got out just before a bullet bill came soaring into the tunnel. It completely destroyed the inside of the tunnel and two more came soon after. The pressure built up to such an intense point that the tunnel collapsed inwards. The tunnel entrance disappeared on both sides, completely taking away their way back home.

"Move!" Mario called out and they scrambled to get away. More were coming and destroyed chunks of the hill they were climbing. One came so close to Waluigi that he was knocked to the side by the force of the blast. They made it to the top of the hill within a few seconds of each other and dropped down the other side. They lost their footing, some rolling into each other and causing them to fall, and rolled down to the bottom in one large group.

The hill soon leveled out and they were able to run away without injury. They ran to the city and tore through the wall of warriors guarding the city.

"Who are you?" One asked.

"We need to see Prince Peasley!" Link managed to gasp between breaths.

"Well then you just missed him."

"What!" They all blurted out.

"Yeah. He, the queen, and a large guy with a big pink nose left about an hour ago." the soldier said.

They all groaned and dropped to the ground. "Well they must've gone to Jungle Japes then." Said Krystal.

"And they're with Wario!" Waluigi said happily.

"Let's go!" said Mario and they all stood up.

"Sorry guys, I'm not going." said Yoshi.

"What!" Luigi gasped. "Why not?"

"Honestly, I want revenge on every soldier I can get. I'll help these guys out. You go on ahead." Yoshi said bravely. "I promise I'll catch up."

"His choice." Fox shrugged. "Alright, let's go."

Mario and Luigi stayed behind while the others headed for the other end of the city. Yoshi groaned after ignoring them for a few seconds, "What?"

"Good luck," was all Mario said and he walked off.

"Yoshi..." Luigi began, but Yoshi interrupted him.

"Don't worry about me. I know what I have to do, and it doesn't involve me following you. It involves me fighting these damn soldiers." he said.

This left Luigi speechless. "Well... good luck." he said quietly and walked after the others.

Yoshi equipped himself with a large spear and armor and stepped into a line of soldiers. "Time for revenge." he growled as the bullet bills got closer.


	12. Chapter 11

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Kirby 4. King Dedede 5. Metaknight 6. Fox 7. Falco 8. Krystal 9. Waluigi 10. Link ::::::::11. Yoshi ::::::::12. Wario 13. Prince Peasley 14. Queen Beanbean

Wario, Prince Peasley, and Queen Beanbean left the city as soon as they woke up. They went to the east to find the tunnel to Jungle Japes, the next stop on their journey. They quickly found it just a half mile away on the beach and walked in. As soon as they stepped through the half way mark they began hearing a low rumble.

"What's that?" Wario asked.

"You'll see." Prince Peasley winked and walked ahead.

They began hearing animal sounds too; birds chirping and monkeys chattering. They stepped through the tunnel and came out into a giant jungle that stretched on for hundreds of miles. Queen Beanbean and Wario were amazed and open-mouthed, staring at everything they could. Prince Peasley only smiled at their amusement. He saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye and drew his sword out. He felt something cold and metallic get jabbed into his neck and a voice whispered, "Don't move" into his ear.

The three of them had been surrounded by ten soldiers. "Follow us or you die." The one who had his gun in Prince Peasley's neck growled. He pushed Prince Peasley forward and the others reluctantly followed.

"Ah crap." Wario groaned and the soldier behind him responded by jabbing his gun into Wario's neck as well.

----------------

They were brought through a small village of tree houses. They climbed up a tree and across three rope bridges over a large river. Prince Peasley looked around and saw that there were several soldiers patrolling the village. They stopped in front of the largest hut yet and the soldiers pushed them inside.

"This village... the soldiers have taken over the capital of Jungle Japes, the capital of this country." said Prince Peasley. "Jungle Japes has been captured by them."

"And he is right!" Came a loud, obnoxious voice from the other side of the room. Prince Peasley took a moment to look at the house that they had been forced into.

The entire room was made of wood or bamboo. The rug in the middle was a skin from a small monkey with long hair in a ponytail. Wario took little notice and was looking at the other end of the room, where the voice had come from. Behind a large desk, also made of wood, was a large, bamboo chair and pictures of a large crocodile on the walls. The chair was being occupied by a large, reptilian creature, who was watching them with one gleaming eye and one eye that wasn't watching them.

"And who might you be?" The creature asked, grinning, in the same obnoxious voice that they heard earlier.

"We don't give our names." Prince Peasley said as Wario opened his mouth. He closed it again and examined the creature.

It was an eight foot tall, scaly, green skinned, crocodile. It had a crooked eye and was wearing a yellow crown with a supreme general's star on it. Rows of razor sharp teeth and claws to match. Even though it sounded loud and obnoxious, it was trying to appear non-threatening.

"Very well. I have nothing to hide from my new friends!" He yelled. "I am King K. Rool! The new ruler of Jungle Japes!" He grinned and stood up, revealing that he was much taller than all three of them. "And I know enough from the head honcho to know that you are Prince Peasley."

Prince Peasley only glared, trying to not look surprised, but King K. Rool saw something that told him otherwise. "Your eye twitched. It must be true." He said, showing his large teeth. He turned to Wario and sized him up. "You look tasty."

Wario began to sweat and his mustache dropped, but King K. Rool only shook his head. "Not enough meat on that one-" He began, but then he saw Queen Beanbean and he began to drool. Prince Peasley stepped in front of her with his sword out.

"Wowza! We have a winner! A smorgasbord of meat!" King K. Rool hooted and whistled.

Queen Beanbean glared at him and stepped back, but two soldiers ran in and grabbed her. Prince Peasley yelled, "Stay away from her!"

"Guards! Take these two away!" King K. Rool demanded.

"No! Don't take her!" Prince Peasley struggled against the soldiers, but even more came and he was soon overtaken. Wario didn't struggle at all and they were quickly let out. Queen Beanbean tried to follow them but King K. Rool grabbed her arm and pulled her into the room, his claws digging into her skin.

"Get away you beast!" Queen Beanbean screamed as Prince Peasley and Wario were forced down a ladder. They reached the ground and were a few feet from the ladder when another loud, girly scream was heard. They also heard a loud growl and the scream stopped as suddenly as it began.

Prince Peasley finally lost control and elbowed both of his capturers in the ribs. He tried to run but was hit in the head by the same soldier. Wario was hit as well for good measure and they both blacked out.

----------------------------

"Master Chief! Master Chief!" A soldier burst through the door.

"What is it?" Master Chief groaned and looked up at the soldier.

"Star Fox has officially been declared captured. The tunnel leading from it to the Legend of Zelda realm has also been destroyed as well.

"Very well. Send word to destroy the final tunnel as well." Master Chief nodded and said.

"But doesn't that tunnel lead to this realm?" asked the soldier.

"Exactly."

"Very well." the soldier ran out and ran past a new soldier.

"Sir!" The new soldier said. "What is it!" said an annoyed Master Chief, who had to cover the giant map of the realms to avoid the soldier seeing it.

"The Legend of Zelda realm has officially been declared captured." The soldier said nervously.

"Excellent! Now leave." Master Chief replied. The relieved soldier left the room and Master Chief opened up the map. He checked Legend of Zelda and Star Fox off of the list of the realms still fighting. Only five more realms were still fighting. Only five more realms before his mission was complete.

-------------------------

The bullet bills were within feet of the warriors waiting at Beanbean city's gates. One explosion was so close that it knocked some soldiers off of their feet. One bullet bill hit and cracked the bridge and after that they stopped. A horn sounded and Yoshi was able to see a line of soldiers coming down the hill. On the top of the hill were five large bullet bill cannons. The dark clouds were over the city now and Yoshi could see Cackletta overlooking the battleground on top of a floating chair.

The shooting began when the soldiers were within yards of the bridge. Both groups charged at one another. Several beanbean warriors were shot and killed before they left the bridge. Yoshi was one of the few in the front rows that managed to dodge all of the bullets and stabbed the closest soldier in the stomach with his spear. He ripped the spear out and took the soldier's gun from him as he fell.

A warrior had run in front of Yoshi and was shot by one soldier that had his gun aimed at Yoshi's head. He looked at his gun in surprise and looked up to see Yoshi's gun aimed right at him. Yoshi shot him in the head and took three steps back. Another warrior ran in Yoshi's path, aimed at a diagonal direction to Yoshi, and was shot by another soldier. Yoshi shot down three more soldiers and retreated back to behind the bridge.

Soldiers were coming by the thousands and for each Beanbean warrior there were ten soldiers to fight him. Cackletta was also sending lightning down on the city and the bridge, damaging it even futher, and was killing many soldiers and warriors as well. The battle had only been going on for a few minutes and already several dozen bodies were lying on the already-weakened bridge.

The Beanbean warriors were retreating and more soldiers began to capture the bridge. Bullet bill cannon fired at the wrong moment and hit the weak point of the bridge. The entire bridge collapsed, sending several dozen soldiers, a few warriors, and many dead bodies down to their deaths.

The soldiers had lost their way in, but the bullet bill cannons began to fire once more. Yoshi was in the middle of the chaos as warriors scrambled around to escape the bullet bills and the continuous lightning that Cackletta was still shooting.

Yoshi grabbed one scared-to-death warrior aside and yelled to hear his own voice over the noise, "Do we have any sniper guns?"

The warrior had, luckily, been carrying a stolen one so he gave it to Yoshi and ran off. Yoshi aimed the gun at the sky and fired.

Cackletta was laughing at the chaos below when she felt he chair buckle. She stopped laughing and looked down. A hole had clipped one of the motors that kept the chair floating. The chair tipped over and began to plummet.

"Help me!" She called out as she fell off of her chair and fell to the ground.

------------------------

The ten of them had found the tunnel to Jungle Japes quickly and cautiously walked inside. Fox and Falco took the lead and they immediately saw one badly concealed soldier in the trees.

Fox turned back to the others and said, "Alright. Take the path to the right and stay hidden!"

They kept as silent as possible as they left the tunnel and ran into the bushes. The pines snapped at them as they crawled through the bushes and each of them suffered at least one bite from a mosquito. They didn't even have time to look at the scenery.

They soon found a hole with a set of bars in it. Fox knelt down to peer inside and was met with a banana thrown at his face and an old, cracked voice saying, "Go away! You young bastard!"

Fox growled down, "What the hell was that for? Who are you?"

"I'm Cranky Kong! Trapped in this small cage with my son, grandson, and two unconscious fellas!" the voice replied.

"Is your grandson Diddy Kong?" asked Link, who had recognized his last name.

"Yeah, how would you know?" "Stand back!" Link hacked at the bars with his newly acquired sword and jumped inside.

The others waited for several minutes before Link finally climbed out, carrying Prince Peasley on his back. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong climbed out after him, carrying Cranky Kong and Wario.

"Guys, meet Donkey Kong, Cranky Kong, and Diddy Kong. Prince Peasley and Wario." said Link.

"Thanks for busting us out." said Diddy. "It's great to see some of you again!"

"Prince Peasley and Diddy Kong. That's two more!" Said Krystal.

"So, how'd you get trapped?" asked Falco.

"We were ambushed and captured. The soldiers came without warning. They captured us three and killed everyone else." said Cranky Kong. "We've been trapped for only a couple of days, but they treated us like-"

"Everyone?" Luigi interrupted. His eyes were wide open in surprise.

"What happened?" asked Wario. He had finally woken up and was rubbing his head. Prince Peasley was looking no better, however, but he was also awake.

"Wario!" Waluigi yelled and he picked Wario up in a bear hug.

"Waluigi? Am I in Hell?" asked Wario.

"No. We need to get out of here!" said Mario. "We can't find anymore people here if all of the Kongs are dead, so we have to leave as soon as possible before we lose anyone."

They nodded in agreement, but Prince Peasley said, "Let me get something first. I forgot something."

---------------------

King K. Rool was licking his fingers free of any meat still hanging on. "That meat was much better than the monkey meat I've been having over the past couple days. So succulent and delicious." He grinned. A few moments of peace every day was all he needed.

Suddenly a figure burst from the roof. He landed on his feet and ran to King K. Rool. The figure grabbed King K. Rool before he even had a chance to react and grabbed a small sword that had been stolen from him. King K. Rool pushed the figure aside and jumped up, but the figure has already gotten a hold of the sword and pulled it with him.

"Guards! Come quick!" King K. Rool yelled but no one came.

"I already killed them both. Now fight me like the demon that you are!" Prince Peasley, the shadowed figure, yelled.

King K. Rool growled and charged at Prince Peasley, who easily dodged and knocked the crown off of his head. K. Rool turned around to see that Prince Peasley was right beside him. Prince Peasley yelled out, "This is for the queen you bastard!" and stabbed the sword right through King K. Rool's neck and out the other side.

King K. Rool didn't even have time to react and the surprise in his eyes was enough to tell Prince Peasley that he had gotten his revenge. Prince Peasley viciously removed the sword and jumped back through the hole. King K. Rool held his hands to his throat and felt cold blood rushing down from the wound. He groaned and dropped to the ground.

"So... so this is the end?" King K. Rool groaned. "I killed his friend and he killed me? Damn him... damn him and damn her and damn anyone else who he's with." His face was paling and he was minutes away from death. "How I'm able to talk I have no idea. But I don't care anymore." He closed his eyes and started to mumble incoherent words.

Prince Peasley jumped down from the roof to join his friends behind some trees.

"Took you long enough." Fox said.

"Well I got what I needed." He held his bloodied sword out and said, "Consider King K. Rool dead."

"There's something I need to tell you about King K. Rool." said Cranky Kong. "When we have some spare time."

They nodded and took off through the jungle to find the next tunnel.

----------------

"Master Chief! Bad news!" A soldier burst through the door.

"I hate bad news." Master Chief groaned.

"Well... King K. Rool is dead."

"WHAT!" Master Chief's voice echoed throughout Final Destination.

"Three soldiers reported a green skinned man with shiny blond hair. They say he was the killer."

"Prince Peasley? In Jungle Japes? Impossible." Master Chief took out his gun and, before the soldier could react, shot the soldier in the head. The soldier dropped to the ground and Master Chief kicked him out of the room. He shut the door and began to pace.

"Prince Peasley? Mario, Link, Metaknight and Krystal? All of them in different realms. What could it mean? Is there something going on that I don't know about?" He asked himself. "No. No. It couldn't be. They'd of died by now."

Nevertheless he got several soldiers to watch the tunnel entrances. He also crossed King K. Rool off of his list of supreme generals and continued to pace.


	13. Chapter 12

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Kirby 4. King Dedede 5. Metaknight 6. Fox 7. Falco 8. Krystal 9. Waluigi 10. Link 11. Wario 12. Prince Peasley 13. Diddy Kong 14. Donkey Kong 15. Cranky Kong :::::::::::::16. Yoshi

Everyone fighting had heard the sniper gun fire. All soldiers looked up to see Cackletta falling from her floating chair, giving the Beanbean warriors a chance to kill several soldiers before retreating to the second of the four lines of defenses. Yoshi was one of the few to stay and keep fighting as the soldiers began placing down a hand-made bridge. Yoshi used his sniper gun from a distance and managed to kill some bridge-builders before the sniper ran out of bullets. Yoshi growled as he fired his last bullet and threw the gun aside. He ran down to the bridge and took out a handgun he had stolen and began firing.

The bridge had been placed down, still thousands of soldiers left to fight, and as they began to cross the bridge, the warriors had to retreat. Yoshi was one of the last ones to defend the bridge before he too retreated. The soldiers began crossing the bridge, though the warriors that stayed to fight continued to shoot them off. The soldiers became so desperate that they began shooting from the bridge. Only twenty warriors stayed to defend the bridge and all twenty were killed.

Yoshi was one of the last ones to leave the bridge before the soldiers took over. He spat in anger as he ran, cursing his own fear, but he continued until he reached the second wall. He was greeted with a sniper gun and someone spitting at him while saying, "Get to the left sniper tower ASAP!"

He nodded and ran as fast as he could up the tall tower, where he met three other snipers in the same tower. He nodded as he reached them and they nodded back as they waited. The soldiers hadn't come yet, as they were regrouping as many soldiers as possible before they continued their attack.

One sniper groaned, "When are they coming!"

"You want them to come?" asked Yoshi.

He grinned. "Of course. I'd like some-" Yoshi ran up to him and punched him in the face. The warrior slammed into the wall and the other two pointed their gun at Yoshi.

"You're an idiot then. They'll kill you before you had a chance to-" Yoshi began, but he stopped when he heard a familiar whistling sound. He pushed the other two warriors aside and looked out the window. "Just as I thought. GET OUT NOW!" Yoshi yelled in as loud of a voice as he could. He grabbed one of the snipers and the guy he punched and pulled them out of the room. They resisted, pushing Yoshi away trying to get free, and together they tripped down the many stairs in a painful ball of arms and legs.

The bullet bill that Yoshi had seen earlier crashed into the sniper tower that they had just been in. The three of them crashed to the bottom step and out of the door just as the bullet bill hit. The rocks fell down all around them; thankfully none of the rocks crushed any of the warriors below. The warrior that Yoshi had punched felt his nose, which was bleeding, and glared at Yoshi.

"Thanks a lot!" He growled and wiped the blood onto Yoshi's cheek. He walked to the second tower and Yoshi never saw him again.

The other warrior just sat on the ground, staring at the tower that had been blasted. "Th-thanks." He sputtered and grinned at Yoshi. "You saved my life."

Yoshi nodded and got up, but the warrior held him back. "My name's Beans McBeaners. You saved my life. I owe you something in return."

Yoshi looked back to the bridge and winced. "Thanks. My name's Yoshi." He grabbed Beans's arm and pulled him back up.

"Thirty minutes!" Cackletta's voice suddenly rose from nowhere. "I will give you thirty minutes to surrender or we will crush your pathetic town. My soldiers are waiting right outside your city, so don't even think about escaping!" Her cackling voice echoed out throughout the kingdom for several seconds.

"She didn't die? Dammit!" Yoshi growled.

"We should fight to the death!" Many warriors yelled.

"We should surrender!" said an equal number of warriors.

"We fight to the death!" Yoshi yelled, but his voice was lost in the other voices that had yelled the same thing. Finally, the leader of the warriors, an old and strong warrior assigned to protect even Queen Beanbean, stood up. Everyone respected him enough to silence and wait for him to speak.

"I know some of you would rather be away with your families and I respect that. I also respect those that wish to fight for your people. We could go on for hours debating this, but the old witch says we have only thirty minutes to decide. Therefore, I am declaring that those that wish to surrender find your families and hide. Those that wish to fight, say your goodbyes and meet me behind the second wall! I would rather be with my wife and children, but I will honor my place in this army and will stay and fight!" He yelled. At the end he had picked up a staff and raised it into the air, getting applauses from both sides.

----------------

It took fifteen minutes for everyone to say their goodbyes and go their separate ways. By the time the last had left there were less than a hundred left. Yoshi walked around the entire wall twice with Beans, thinking about his life and what he'll do in the afterlife. "I'm sorry Beans. I only prolonged the inevitable."

"What do you mean?" asked Beans.

"I saved you from the tower, but now we'll both die in combat." said Yoshi.

"We won't die. Not here." said Beans in a confident voice.

"What are you talking about? Of course we're going to die. They've probably surrounded us on all sides by now. There's no way out."

Beans grinned. "I just have this feeling that we won't be dying here today. Not in this battle. I can't explain it, but I'm confident that we'll survive."

"I sure hope you're right." Yoshi said. After a pause he said, "Man it sure it quiet."

"I've been in several battles before. But none so ominous." said Beans.

"Well, this isn't a battle. It's a massacre."

"I see you haven't surrendered!" Cackletta's voice rang out once more. "Very well. I gave you a chance, but you'll have to face the wrath of my soldiers! ATTACK!" She commanded with a tone of anticipation and joy in her voice.

Just as the soldiers charged, the entire city was darkened as rainclouds blocked the sun's rays. Everyone looked up despite themselves and it began to rain.

"The first rainy day in twenty years." chuckled Beans. "And it had to be today."

The soldiers continued to march and soon reached the second wall. Each soldier was killed as soon as they were within sight, but because the soldiers had over two thousand people they began to gain the upper hand.

Six bullet bills had been fired from the cannons as the soldiers reached the wall, and they soared through the air straight at the wall. They hit the wall, exploding on impact and creating a force that completely blew apart the wall and every warrior at it. The soldiers pressed onward and reached the third wall; right outside the castle's front step.

The remaining soldiers: Yoshi, Beans, and thirty others, had seen their fellow warriors die at the second wall and all of them began to sweat. They began to panic and the grips on their weapons tightened. Ten soldiers managed to leave the gates to the left before the soldiers came, but two others had left too late and were shot down, leaving only twenty warriors to fight against two thousand soldiers.

"You sure about us surviving?" Yoshi asked Beans. Beans only shook his head and all of them stared at the army coming up to the front gates. As the soldiers reached the castle's steps a shot rang out and a soldier dropped.

The final battle had begun.

-----------------------

"Star Fox is dead!" yelled a soldier in a triumphant tone who had just walked through the door.

"Excuse me?" asked a grumpy Master Chief who was pondering over what had happened to King K. Rool.

"The _Destroyer_ ship has just destroyed the final tunnel leading to the Star Fox realm. Doesn't that mean that it's isolated?" asked a confused soldier.

"Yes." Master Chief grinned. "Yes it does. Well, send word to have it destroy Jungle Japes's tunnels. Without King K. Rool there's no way I can trust that place anymore."

"Very well, sir." said the soldier and he left.

Master Chief quickly shut the door behind the soldier and walked over to his desk, where he tore off a section of the map that held the Star Fox realm. "One realm cut off from the others forever. I'd say I feel sorry for them, but then I'd be lying." He laughed and tore up the Star Fox realm into pieces.

---------------------

They left the village in search of the tunnel to the Pokémon realm; their next stop. They carefully walked through the thick overgrowth but Cranky Kong reported that they weren't even close.

"We have to walk for at least another half mile." He wheezed.

"Sadly, he's right." said Diddy Kong.

They moved for several minutes before Cranky Kong stopped them. "The tunnel is around here-" Cranky began, but Falco moved a large leaf aside and interrupted him.

"Found it!" He called out and ran inside. Cranky Kong spat into the leaves and followed him in. Mario and Luigi grinned at each other and were the last ones to leave, hiding the tunnel again as they entered.

The tunnel that they came through was in the Kanto region. The tunnel to the Final Destination realm was in Sinnoh and the tunnel to the Earthbound realm was in Hoenn.

They walked through the tunnel and were met by a small, peaceful town. People walked around happily, almost completely oblivious to the people who had just stepped in from a dark ally.

Two young boys, both around 10, suddenly ran up to the group. "I want that Mankey!" One yelled in a whiney tone and pointed at Diddy Kong.

"Well I want that Jigglypuff!" The other whined, pointing to Kirby.

"Puyo?" Kirby yelled, clearly insulted, though everyone else couldn't help grinning.

"Alright kids," said Mario. "Move it along. They're both mine."

The kids groaned and ran away. Diddy Kong was patting his muscles and grinning, while Kirby pouted and kept shouting, "Puyo!" in disbelief.

"We're in some place called..." Falco paused, and then spat. "I can't read Japanese! Where are we?"

"You're in Celadon City." said a deep, soothing voice that rang throughout everyone's ears though it seemed to come from nowhere.

They looked up, expecting to see Master Hand, but instead they were looking at the purple, cat-like, Mewtwo. Mewtwo raised his hand and spoke without moving his lips. "Hello everyone. I am Mewtwo. Realm Representitive of the Pokemon realm." He said.

"Hey Mewtwo." said Metaknight, grinning. "You'll be a great help."

Mewtwo shook his head. "I know why you're here," he said. "But I cannot help you right now. I am fighting in Hoenn and cannot help you here."

"Why can't you join us?" asked Fox.

"I need to protect Pokemon from the soldiers that are storming from the Final Destination realm." said Mewtwo. "I cannot abandon them."

"Then can you tell us where we can go?" asked King Dedede.

"Go to the docks in Vermillion City. Take the ship to Hoenn and meet a Pikachu, Lucario, Jigglypuff, and a Charmander. They will help you in your quest until I am sure that the Pokemon realm is safe. Until then, it'll take a few days for you to reach the other end of the Pokemon realm."

"Okay! But where's the tunnel?" asked Fox.

"In the city called Slateport. The ship should take you there." And with that, Mewtwo floated away.

"Wait!" Luigi called out.

"What?" Mewtwo's voice rang through their ears, though they could not see him.

"If Yoshi, the green dinosaur, comes. Please help him find us." said Luigi.

"If the time comes I will point him in the right direction." Came Mewtwo's reply and they started the walk to Vermillion City.

-----------------------

In the Pikmin realm the supreme general, Titan Dweevil, had just enjoyed a feast of bulborb meat and was picking the chunks of meat out of his teeth. The bulborb had tried to attack him, so it wasn't an actual loss. The Titan Dweevil yawned and walked out of the large door to get some fresh air.

As soon as he walked out, he saw a large black hole in the middle of the field. The hole was sucking the dust and leaves straight from the air, but something was coming out of the other end as well. A large machine with a large yellow button on the top popped out of the hole. The hole disappeared and the machine hovered two feet above the ground before landing with a large crash.

The Titan Dweevil, against his better judgment, carefully walked up to the machine and tapped the yellow button. The entire thing suddenly split open and the Titan Dweevil stepped back several paces in shock. Smoke came from inside the machine and in the smoke stood three small shadows and one large, fat shadow.

At lightning-fast speed they burst out and zoomed in on the Titan Dweevil. He barely had time to duck before three different colored balls flew over his head. He heard them land a foot away and came back just as fast. This time he didn't have time to dodge and two of the balls burst straight through one side of his body and out the other side. The third ball burst through two of the dweevil's legs and cleanly cut them off.

Smoke was still pouring out of the machine by the time it was all over. It had been less than a minute and already they had almost killed the Titan Dweevil. The three figures were gone, leaving only the large, round person standing in the machine. The Titan Dweevil was lying helpless, dying, on the ground when the figure stepped out of the machine.

The person was a man; a completely round man with a small head and completely thin arms. He had a mustache and was wearing shining blue goggles and his face seemed to always be in a frown. He was frowning right now as he lifted the crown from the Titan Dweevil's head. He tossed it into the air a couple of times and caught it, and then he put it on his head: it fit perfectly. He grinned, though still frowning, and said in a gruff voice, "I claim this place the land of Dr. Robotnik!"


	14. Chapter 13

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Kirby 4. King Dedede 5. Metaknight 6. Fox 7. Falco 8. Krystal 9. Waluigi 10. Link 11. Wario 12. Prince Peasley 13. Diddy Kong 14. Donkey Kong 15. Cranky Kong ::::::::16. Yoshi

"Mario, Link, Metaknight, Krystal, Eliwood, Diddy Kong, Prince Peasley, Mewtwo, Ness, Captain Olimar, Pit, Samus, Captain Falcon, Master Chief. Please gather in Rebellion. There's something you must know." A deep voice rang throughout Master Chief's head even though he was incased in ice. He didn't move or react, but this was the only sound his thoughts heard, and it was transferred throughout the ship for everyone to hear.

Three months later...

"We need you, Chief." A young female voice was the only sound in his mind. A door opened, steam flowing through the seams, and out stepped Master Chief in his dark green, camouflage armor. He stretched his arms and legs, getting feeling into his body, before he walked through the door and into a hallway.

"Where are we?" He asked. "When are we?"

"Seven months since you've been in there, Chief." The female's voice rang out throughout the room. "We need you."

"Don't you always?" He grinned and walked down the familiar corridors and into the command bay, where several people were at their stations, piloting the ship.

"You never answered my first question." He said as he walked up behind a woman in a tight, black suit. "Where are we?"

She turned around and saluted him, which he returned. "You'll be going in alone, Chief." She said. "This is a mission that was given to you personally.

"And what do you mean by that?" He raised his eyebrow and lifted his visor so that she could see the expression on his face.

"Three months since we got that signal from an unknown place. It's never been explored, so we were assigned to go to that place and here we are." She said.

"Rebellion?" Master Chief asked, suddenly remembering the message.

She nodded. "Right. Turns out it's in a place that our creator warned us against. It's an entire new universe!"

"Called what!" Master Chief groaned.

"What? You don't like suspense?" She grinned, but he didn't, so she continued. "Called Nintendo World."

He took a step back in shock. "You okay?" She asked.

"I'm fine. So what's the mission?"

"You gotta take control. Simple as that. Take over this place from the inside-out. Once you've controlled each of these fifteen realms, then we take over and clean up. You'll be taking the ship, Destroyer, to help. Good luck, Chief."

"I'll need it." He groaned, remembering everything that he'd heard about that place. How powerful it was, how many warriors were there. There was no way he could defeat it by himself. He needed help.

----------------------------

Master Chief groaned as another soldier ran into the room; waking him up from his nap.

"This better be good." He groaned.

"It is! Beanbean Kingdom has been won! Every resistance in that realm has been killed. Those that left before and after the battle started have been killed." The soldier reported.

"Where were they killed?" Master Chief asked, worried that some might've made it to other realms where they never would have been found.

"Some after they left the city, most in the beaches. A few even made it to Jungle Japes, but they were soon killed." said the soldier.

"Thank you. Now leave." Master Chief replied, and as soon as the soldier left he said, "Four left, then."

-------------

What the soldier reported was not entirely true. Three people had made it out alive.

The soldiers attacked as soon as the first shot had been fired. Six Beanbean warriors dropped after the first wave of bullets. Yoshi and Beans had hidden behind a pillar, so they were safe from the first wave.

"We have to get inside!" Yoshi yelled as the soldiers reloaded.

"Right!" Beans yelled back and they opened the castle doors. The few warriors that were alive ran through the door and they closed it just as the soldiers began the second wave. Miraculously, eight people had avoided all of the gunfire long enough to make it inside.

"Where's the leader?" Yoshi asked.

"Dropped after the first wave." Someone grimly reported.

"We need to hold them off long enough to escape!" Beans said after the doors gave a lurch.

"Why bother?" The same warrior said. "We're dead. We lost and now we're dead." But as he said this, he got up and replaced Beans at the door. "If you escape, then you're angels. I'm no angel, so I'll hold them off."

The door lurched again and the others got up. They nodded, said their short good-byes, and ran towards the end of the room. They made it into the second doorway when the door gave way. Gunfire broke out and two warriors dropped. The five remaining made it through the second hallway and closed the door to the throne room behind them. They walked away from the door and stood, evenly apart, staring at each other.

"Well, now what?" asked one of the breathless men. "We're trapped!"

"Wrong." said Beans and he pushed the eye of a man in one of the paintings on the walls. The entire wall gave way, making a loud noise that even people outside of the room could hear. Beans pushed everyone inside and grabbed a handle on the inside wall. The wall slid into place and, as he did so, the soldiers broke through the door.

"Where the hell did they go?" came one voice.

"Search the castle!" commanded Cackletta, who had flown in and was now sitting in the throne. "My victory is complete."

---------------------------------

The hallway led to a dark room where nobody could see anything. They didn't risk turning on the lights either, for risk of getting caught. Beans hissed for them to follow him and, having nothing better to trust, they grabbed onto his arm and he led them through the room. They traveled through several more hallways, getting deeper underground as they went, before they reached an open doorway. Beans stopped them here, but they could hear the trickling of water from the river.

"This door leads to the back of the castle, but there's no way to avoid the river." He said. "We'll have to jump in."

They all nodded, biting back questions and useless arguments. They sat and discussed for as long as they could afford before coming up with a plan.

"We'll pretend we're dead and float down the river with the other dead bodies. Hopefully the soldiers will just think we're dead and ignore us. Then we'll travel down to the beach where there's safety." said Yoshi.

They wished each other luck and, one by one, placed themselves into the water. Only extreme luck would be enough to keep their heads above the water and keep them from sucking the water in.

Yoshi was the third person to enter the river and Beans was the last. The river rounded two bends before they heard the soldiers' yells and cheers. _They were celebrating their victory while five people were escaping right under their noses_ thought Yoshi and he resisted the temptation to grin.

The person ahead of Yoshi suddenly dropped his head under the water for a split second, but he had breathed in at the same time and he sucked in water. He came up, gasping for breath and thrashing. He saw the soldiers looking in shock at him, some even getting their guns, so he swam the rest of the way now that he was exposed. He managed to make it to the first person before the soldiers released a barrage of over a hundred bullets into the two pour men, who were killed instantly.

The soldiers then looked at the bodies more closely as they floated down the river. Occasionally they shot a body, or near a body, that they thought had moved. This happened several times, but Yoshi still had several yards to go. All three of the remaining men were nervous, but none of them moved except to breathe.

Finally, after what seemed like years, they made it under the bridge and out of the city. They floated down several more rivers, passing a few soldiers along the way, before they reached the beach.

Yoshi got out of the water, ducked down, and searched for any enemies. All he saw were a few crabs, but no soldiers. He even saw the tunnel leading to the Jungle Japes realm just a few yards away.

A few seconds later the others came out of the water. Beans hugged the other warrior and said, "You okay, Chuck?"

Chuck nodded. "Yeah, are you?"

Yoshi looked at them. "You two know each other?"

Beans nodded and grinned. "He's my younger brother."

Yoshi nodded. "Then you two will watch each other's backs. You two are lucky. You're the only survivors of the worst battle I have ever seen."

"Wait. The only survivors? You survived too!" said Beans.

"I haven't survived. Not yet. My job isn't done. I have to leave." said Yoshi. "No, you can't come. I have to do this alone." He added when Beans and Chuck opened their mouths to argue.

Beans saw that he was going to lose if he argued. He nodded and groaned. "Well, good luck then."

They shook hands and Yoshi saluted both of them. He walked into the tunnel, gave one last wave, and disappeared.

-------------------

"A toast to our newest member!" Called Wolf O' Donnell and he lifted his glass. The others did the same and he continued. "He has met all of our standards and he even shot that idiotic frog out of the sky before we left."

At this, the other two people: Leon and Panther, grinned and clapped. "Good job, man!" said Leon.

"And now I present the newest member of the newly named Wolf Squad: Shadow!"

Shadow the hedgehog had once thought that he needed a disguise to join them, but soon he realized that they had no idea what Sega or Sonic or who he was. He had fit right in as soon as he announced himself to him.

"I am Shadow the Hedgehog!" He said as he jumped down from above.

"How'd you get on our ship?" Wolf demanded. Panther seemed unsurprised, but Leon jumped in surprise.

"I have my ways. I'd like to join your squad." He said.

"Don't think so." said Wolf. "Now get out of my way!"

Shadow remained still. "I said I want to join you." He repeated.

"I don't give a shit. Now get off!" Wolf's voice rose and he raised his gun at Shadow's head.

"Chaos... CONTROL!" Shadow suddenly yelled. The next second Wolf, Leon, and Panther were all on the ground with several bruises on their body.

"Alright, alright." Wolf groaned. "But you're going to have to pass our training."

-----------------------

Wolf recalled that moment and laughed. "I still have no idea how you managed to do that. But I don't care. Not after the way you completely destroyed every obstacle we laid out for you."

Shadow grinned at this. Several weeks of almost nonstop training. Leon and Panther were the only ones actually getting tired throughout these courses, even though they were the teachers. Shadow sped through each obstacle like it was nothing. He even enjoyed himself half the time.

"To Shadow!" Wolf called.

"To Shadow." The others chanted and drunk what little liquid was left. Shadow was now an official member of the Wolf Squad.

-------------------------

An hour after Dr. Robotnik had killed Titan Dweevil, the large castle that the Titan Dweevil had inhabited fell to the ground in an explosion that was heard for miles with the force of a thousand bomb rocks. Dr. Robotnik calmly walked out of the large doors only seconds before the explosion. Creatures of every shape and size came storming towards the rubble that used to be the castle. Each one was growling their signature growl and were wondering what had happened.

"Greetings all..." Dr. Robotnik paused. "Animals? Anyway, I am Dr. Robotnik, but you can call me Dr. Eggman if you can't pronounce it. I hereby am declaring myself the ruler of this world."

This statement was met with several roars and protests, but Dr. Eggman only smirked.

"You have a problem? Take it up with my three friends." He said and gestured to the robotic hedgehog, fox, and echidna standing behind him. Each of them had pure green eyes and was staring blankly ahead. All of them were barely taller than three feet (less than an inch in this realm) and seemed nonthreatening.

The large group took advantage and most of the strong beasts charged. Dr. Robotnik didn't look surprised at all and he snapped his fingers. At once the three small animals disappeared, but the oncoming stampede didn't notice until the first line, even the largest creatures, suddenly dropped with three holes in their bodies. The stampede's next lines tripped over the first, and the final rows tripping over the second, causing one massive pileup. The nearest beast once came within a couple of inches from Dr. Eggman, who grinned and said, "I warned you."

They groaned and struggled to get onto their feet while Eggman only smirked while watching this. He turned around and casually walked back towards the ruins of the castle.

-----------------

On a beach several meters (miles) away from the castle, a small man in a spacesuit was keeping watch for any enemies. He saw an object floating towards the sand and he got off the rock he was standing on and ran down to the beach. He reached the object just as it reached the sand and he managed to drag it past the tide.

The "object" was actually a blue animal, around the same size as the man, with spikey blue fur and wearing red shoes. The man checked the animal's neck for a pulse. It had one, but almost too faint to track. The man flipped it over and saw that its entire back was singed and black.

"What the heck happened to this creature?" He wondered aloud. He shrugged this off and decided to help it. He picked the, surprisingly light, animal up and ran away.


	15. Chapter 14

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Kirby 4. King Dedede 5. Metaknight 6. Fox 7. Falco 8. Krystal 9. Waluigi 10. Link 11. Wario 12. Prince Peasley 13. Diddy Kong 14. Donkey Kong 15. Cranky Kong :::::::::: 16. Yoshi Yoshi walked out of the tunnel and immediately saw a soldier standing a few feet ahead of him. His back was turned towards Yoshi and his head was looking at something in the sky. Yoshi took two small steps to the right and ran into the foliage. He thanked his luck at the soldier's distraction, but he heards a strange, rumbling noise and stopped. It wasn't the waterfall; it was something much higher up. He lifted his head up and saw that, in the yellow of the sky, a large ship was floating overhead: A large, metallic ship with the name "_Destroyer_" on the side. The ship was hovering a mile directly above Yoshi's head, and only in the dense trees had left Yoshi known to the ship's shadow, as the sun was nearing the West and could be seen clearly in Yoshi's position.

The ship had two guns pointed at a position in the North; where, directly, Yoshi did not know. Yoshi climbed up a tree to get a better view, and what he saw shocked him: In the direct path of the guns was a village of tree huts.

"They aren't going to destroy that village, are they?" He whispered. He still has a spear, a shotgun, and six bullets, but that wasn't enough to stop that ship. He looked down and saw, to his horror, that a soldier, soon joined by two others, had placed himself at the tree's trunk. Yoshi was soaking wet and in fear of the soldier getting hit by falling drops of water.

"Crap!" Yoshi groaned. He lifted his legs as silently as possible into the leaves of the tree, hoping the leaves would soak up any water he left. Although now he had no choice but to stay in the uncomfortable tree.

"So how long is that ship gonna stay here?" A soldier asked, gesturing to the ship above.

"I heard it was staying up until morning. It has to kill all three of them tunnels, and I heard it takes around an hour per blast." said another, who had taken a place right beside the first soldier. The third soldier remained standing and was at the tree opposite them.

"Once it destroys these tunnels, then it'll land in the middle of the city for us to board it, then we'll never see this place again." said the third soldier.

"Seriously?" The first gasped. "Thank the Lord!"

The others grinned, "Shut up."

"Well I'm sick of this place. I can't wait to leave."

Yoshi rolled his eyes. He looked at the leaves, ignoring their conversation for a bit, and let out a silent gasp. A puddle of water had been building up below on a large leaf, which was starting to tip over. He hid himself deeper in the leaves and hoped for a miracle.

The ship started charging its guns, which were giving out a faint, blue glow that was growing larger by the second. The soldiers looked up and Yoshi held his breath.

"Here we go!" a soldier yelled with a large, stupid grin on his face.

They either didn't see Yoshi or ignored him, because the puddle of water was trickling down from the leaf. For ten minutes Yoshi was in fear of being discovered, through that time the water had stopped coming down, but the soldiers continued to look up in hope. Finally, he surrendered to his curiosity and flipped over to watch the ship. The lights on the guns were so bright that Yoshi had to shield his eyes as he watched. The guns moved forward so that they were now sticking out several yards from the front of the ship. They made a loud, screeching noise and the blast was released; the guns recoiled back, making a water-sucking sound when the laser touched the mechanics of the gun as one pushed forward and the other pushed back.

The blast was a bright, blue color similar to the glow the guns had given off. It was heading, unknown to Yoshi, towards the tunnel leading to the Pokemon tunnel. The blast obliterated the tunnel and the area surrounding it. Yoshi saw the mushroom-shaped cloud in the distance.

"What did it hit?" he whispered.

The soldiers below were cheering and hollering.

"Now that was awesome!"

"Genius! Pure genius!"

"Well, the next show will be in an hour. We'll have to get out of here, because that ship will be shooting near here."

"Right."

They left, but Yoshi waited for several minutes before he moved again. His body was so stiff, however, that he fell out of the tree more than he climbed out.

"Dammit." He swore as he hit the ground. He stretched for a few minutes to get feeling back into them, and then he got up and took off his armor. It was soaking wet and would leave a trail and he had no more use for it if he played his cards right. He hid the armor in some bushes and took off in a random direction, in search for a way out.

------------------------

Yoshi searched around for almost an hour, seeing no sign of any tunnels and passing several soldiers along the way, before he heard the sounds of the ship charging up its cannons. He turned around and saw that the ship's position had changed. It was now in the West, completely blocking the setting sun from view, and its guns were pointed towards the Beanbean Kingdom tunnel.

"It's already been an hour?" Yoshi whispered. He climbed up a tree to get a better view. He watched the ship charge up its guns and, several minutes later, fire them at the tunnel. The laser passed by just overhead, Yoshi had to cover his eyes in order to keep from being blinded, and landed at the nearby tunnel. Yoshi saw the mushroom shaped cloud and, because he was closer to the impact, he could feel the shockwaves. He fell out of the tree because of them and landed hard on the ground. He groaned and rubbed the back of his head that had hit the ground. He was delirious: He saw stars and lights popping in front of his eyes.

The superheated cloud that followed the explosion was heading towards Yoshi. It would hit him in a few seconds, yet he had no idea that it was coming. Yoshi grabbed the tree's trunk and pulled himself up. He heard a loud, rumbling sound that was getting louder by the second. He looked out from behind the tree and saw the cloud, approaching him at an amazingly fast speed. He could feel the intense heat even though it was still in the distance. It was approaching too fast for Yoshi to escape, so he pushed himself against the tree and hoped for the best.

The cloud's heat was burning Yoshi's skin from a few yards away. The tree helped absorb most of the heat, but Yoshi still felt a good deal of burning heat as the cloud passed. Several layers of the heat hit Yoshi, who was forced to cover his face with his hands, and completely burned him. He had to endure this torture for less than a minute, but the damage was done: His hands were blackened, as well as his legs and his body and every other piece of flesh that had been showing. His hands helped protect his face, but the tip of his large nose was black and every other part of his face was browned. His eyebrows had been burnt off, his breathing was raspy and short; his lungs throbbed with pain with each breath.

"Damn..." Yoshi gasped. "This...place..."

Yoshi half closed his eyes; they were too painful to remain wide open anymore. He still could walk, but it'd be too painful with his charred limbs and it would take too much time to search for the final tunnel. He thought about his situation for several moments before deciding what to do. He got up and started limping in the direction of the village he saw earlier.

------------------

Yoshi reached the village barely within a half hour, though if he was walking normally it would only have taken a couple of minutes. He stood near the edge of the village, hidden in the bushes. Every soldier in the village was gathered around in a circle; Yoshi counted fifty in all. In the middle, on a large table, lay King K. Rool.

"What the heck is that?" Yoshi whispered, staring at the large crocodile.

He heard whispering and turned around: Two soldiers were walking just a few feet away from him. He could see them clearly, but they were looking at each other, giving him enough time to hide behind a tree, where he listened in on them.

"So K. Rool is dead?"

"Yeah."

"So who's the man in charge now?"

"No one. We're leaving as soon as the last explosion goes off."

"Which will be when?"

"In about a half hour. At first we were gonna leave early tomorrow, but they managed to tweak the ship enough to get us home tonight."

"Oh no. I can't be stuck here." Yoshi whispered. "But I'll get shot if I even get close!" He was becoming pessimistic; there was no way he could leave with the ship, not with all of those soldiers. That is, until, he heard the soldiers speak up once more.

"I'm gonna take a piss."

"Yeah... good luck with that."

They separated; one soldier walked into the jungle and disappeared while the other sat down under a tree, facing the same direction that Yoshi was looking at. Yoshi quickly thought of a plan: He grabbed a coconut from the ground and slowly walked towards the soldier.

--------------------

"Alright! The tank is empty!" The soldier called out as he entered the clearing. "Jack? You there?" He looked around, but saw no one in sight.

Unknown to him, his friend was hidden in the bushes, unconscious and naked, with a large lump on his head.

Yoshi had ambushed the soldier, knocked him out with the coconut, and stolen his clothes. They hurt his skin when he put them on, but he endured the pain in order to survive. He rubbed dirt on his large nose, trying to make it look like human skin, and walked out of the bushes and slid to the front of the circle and got a good look at King K. Rool.

"So the croc croaked?" A soldier nudged Yoshi.

"Seems like it." grunted Yoshi.

"Thank god. I've always hated that general the most of them all."

"General?"

"Oh right. I forgot, not many people know about them. Only us high ranking officers know about it."

"Oh, alright." said Yoshi, disappointed.

The soldier nudged him again and said, "Follow me."

Yoshi followed him away from the crowd and into the jungle. While they walked around the village, the soldier, named Matthew, explained:

"We have about twenty minutes, so here's my story:

"When I was first recruited, three months ago, I was the leader of a small troop. Of course, there weren't nearly as many of us then as there are now. But anyway, we went through two leaders, each having a different ambition. The first was a giant hand yes, a giant hand, but all he did was train us to capture guys like K. Rool. We captured them without killing them. Twelve people, we captured: The top ten baddies. Only because the hand ordered them to be captured.

"I was part of the very first capture, and was in every single capture since then. We traveled to this realm called F-Zero. The hand, nicknamed himself 'Crazy Hand' told us the guy we had to capture was a large fat guy named Samurai Goroh: The tenth of the ten most deadly villains. I was second in-command at that time; second of seven. We tracked him to a building taller than any others, over one hundred floors high, where we cornered him and captured him. Before he could get out his two large samurai swords, I delivered the finishing blow: I conked him on the head with my gun, then again with a bat I found nearby.

"After that capture, which all seven of us survived (I tell you this because not all missions went as smoothly as that one) we were sent to the Mushroom Kingdom realm with three new guys to capture the ninth baddie: Petey Piranha: This huge plant with a giant mouth and leaves for hands. Ten feet tall, it was! We trapped it on a tropical island after a week of searching. It shot out this slime that engulfed two of us. We shot it with a sleeping dart, but it did no good. We shot it with twelve, but still no luck! Finally, our leader managed to drag it to the ground and force fee it a sleeping gas strong enough to cause that behemoth to sleep. The two men that had been slimed had survived, but they were paralyzed and didn't go on another mission.

"That was only number nine! There were still eight more left. Oh, and by the way, I'm one of two people to have survived every single capture. The other is now the leader of this whole operation. He goes by the name of Master Chief.

"So, number eight was a human-like wolf named Wolf. Clever, huh? Anyway, we had to go out in space to find him. When we did, we were shot at by three red planes! One driven by a panther, one by a chameleon, and one by Wolf himself. Six of us went out in similar planes and began an air-fighter war. Ten minutes in, one of our planes goes down in flames. It took four of us to take down the panther soon after, but he managed to land himself in our ship where the others were waiting, so we held him prisoner. We repeated the same with the chameleon, but he managed to land in our ship as well. Wolf took out another of our guys before we surrounded him and forced him to surrender.

"Seven baddies left, now, I remember counting them down. We got four new recruits for this one. Number seven was that croc: King K. Rool. We traveled to this place, this horrible jungle, and stayed there for days. We tracked him down in a far away volcano. He attacked us, and being a half ton giant crocodile we were pretty scared. He attacked, charging forward, and sliced a claw right through one of our men's stomach. He died (I remember seeing the lights leave his eyes) and we attacked back. It took all nine of us to knock him out, and even then we lost two others. We was always my least favorite, and I'm glad he's dead.

"Number six was the Titan Dweevil, found in the Pikmin realm. A place where you're the size of a quarter. This bug might've been less than an inch tall in our world, but in here he was a giant. And if you're a giant in there, you're a giant in every other world. Large pincers on eight legs, sharp enough to go through our bodies completely. We got five new men before we set out, but he killed seven of us before we managed to wound all eight of his legs and bring him down.

"After that guy, I didn't want to know what the last five were. Sadly, I soon found out. We set out for the famous Legend of Zelda realm in search of a magical being named Vaati. Fifteen of us traveled to a large castle way out of sight of Hyrule castle. The castle was filled with monsters and traps; only ten of us made it to Vaati's lair at the top. He was small, barely four feet tall, and had a childlike face, but that red eye on his hat creeped me out. I didn't know what I was doing at the time, but I fired a bullet at that eye. The others followed, but every bullet reflected off of a red shield the same color as that eye. Finally, Master Chief grabbed a strange, green gun and fired green shards of glowing glass at Vaati. The shards went through his shield and hit Vaati's hat, shattering that eye, and neutralized all of Vaati's powers.

"Number four, though I was scared, was the easiest one. Cackletta had been weakened in an earlier battle, and laid on a rock, bruised, bloody, and willing to surrender without resistance. "The top three were the worst villains I will ever see: Ridley, Ganondorf, and Bowser. Ridley was third, so we went to the Metroid realm and into space again. Ten of us went to this deserted planet and traveled through it. Most of it was filled with lava; we lost two men just traveling to the middle. Finally we reached the middle and found Ridley, asleep, covered in a metal suit. As we approached, it woke up suddenly and screeched like a bird. It launched itself towards us. We dove inside, but it grabbed one of us in its talons and carried him away. We got back up, but it came back just as fast. We had no choice but to fire, but the bullets didn't even affect him; they all ricocheted off of his suit. It grabbed another man and flew away, whether to eat him or throw him into the lava I do not know. Ridley came at us, out of nowhere, before we had time to move. Before he reached us, however, ten people came out of nowhere! They were all dressed in colorful, mechanical suits, with large guns for hands. They attacked together and their combined ammo was enough to blast Ridley out of the sky.

"We later learned that they had seen out ship fly by and decided to follow us. When we went in the planet, they waited for us to run out screaming. When we didn't they came in after us. Thanks to them, we managed to capture Ridley, leaving only two baddies left.

"Ganondorf was next on our list. We headed towards the Legend of Zelda realm again, with fifteen men. We had to travel to a fortress even farther away from Hyrule Castle than Vaati's castle was. Anyway, the place was unguarded, so we passed through safely. We reached the basement and saw Ganondorf himself, sitting on his throne, smiling at us as we entered. He stood up and got his sword out of its sheath. He walked up to us, our bullets ricocheting off of his body without any sort of shield or protection showing. We ran in different directions, but he threw his sword and it sliced through the guy in front of me; right through his head. I tripped over him and crashed into Master Chief and we fell into a small pit. Neither of us could get out nor see what happened.

"Suddenly I heard another scream, a few seconds of pause, and then another scream. I heard ten screams; each time I knew a man had died. Finally I heard a single gunshot, and I heard a scream deeper than any of my men's voices. I saw a flash of dark purple light and the entire room blew up. Rubble flew into the hole and we were almost crushed. Ten minutes later we dug ourselves out of the hole and saw that Ganondorf had turned to stone with a bullet hole in his head. Everyone else had been blown to ashes, along with most of the room, so I never found out who shot him.

"And now the -- hey, are you alright?"

Yoshi had been listening to his story, wincing with each step at the pain, but he couldn't take it anymore and collapsed. He groaned and tried to protest, but Matthew tugged at his clothes and pulled them apart, revealed all of the burns that Yoshi had gotten. Barely a trace of green could be found on his entire body, so he didn't have to worry, at the moment, about anyone finding out what he was.

"We need a medic! Injured soldier!" Matthew yelled.

Yoshi started to drift into unconsciousness, blackness was overtaking his eyes and soon he wouldn't see anything else. His last sight, however, before he blacked out was Matthew's worried face. And then he knew no more.


	16. Chapter 15

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Kirby 4. King Dedede 5. Metaknight 6. Fox 7. Falco 8. Krystal 9. Waluigi 10. Link 11. Wario 12. Prince Peasley 13. Diddy Kong 14. Donkey Kong 15. Cranky Kong :::::::::: 16. Yoshi

By the time they left Jungle Japes, the group had acquired five new members: Donkey Kong, Cranky Kong, Wario, and the two Realm Representatives; Diddy Kong and Prince Peasley. These two new members increased the number of Realm Representatives in the group to six. After they entered the Pokémon realm, they met up with Mewtwo, another Realm Representative, who pointed them in the right direction.

They had just left Celadon City and could see the large skyscrapers of Saffron City already.

"It should take us an hour or so to make it to Saffron City," said Waluigi, who was reading off of a map. "And then it'll take us another hour to make it to Vermillion City, where we'll get on the ship."

"How long will it take to reach Slateport?" asked Diddy Kong.

"Hopefully not too long." said Mario. "We don't know how long we have before Rebellion is discovered."

"I don't know." said Falco. "I could do with some relaxation."

"I'm up for it!" piped up Diddy Kong.

"So why do we have to go through every single realm?" asked Prince Peasley. "We're sneaky enough, we could cut through Final Destination and Legend of Zelda."

"They haven't been told of the mission." Link whispered to Mario.

Mario nodded. "We have to get every Realm Rep. we can to Rebellion. We still need to get Ness, Captain Falcon, Eliwood, Pit, Samus, and Olimar. Master Hand himself gave us this mission, as well as to get as many people as we can. However, the Realm Rep's are the main priority." "I see." nodded Prince Peasley. They spent a few minutes walking in silence; Cranky Kong piggybacking on Donkey Kong; King Dedede humming a war chant; Metaknight gliding a few feet off the ground while Kirby chased after him; Fox, Falco, and Krystal examining their guns; Diddy Kong playing around like the kid he was; Prince Peasley and Link cleaning their swords; the others looking at all of the sights as they passed by.

The silence was broken by two young boys battling each other; one called out a small purple rat and the other called out a large bee. Though they were several yards away, the group heard every command that was given:

"Bite!"

"Poison Sting!"

"Tackle!"

"Poison Sting!"

"You used that already."

"Shut up! Poison sting!"

"No!"

"Hah, I won!"

Soon they drifted out of earshot. The city was getting larger by the minute, and from this distance they could see just how large it was. It was the largest city in Kanto, and one of the largest in the realm. Tall buildings extending several stories high. Small houses built around each skyscraper. The largest building was taller than all others by over 20 stories. It was in the direct middle of the city so that as soon as people walked into the city they would see it.

"That's a big building." said Wario in an impressed voice as they entered the city.

"They're all big." said Luigi in an equally impressed voice.

"Alright, we're here. We need to go to the south side if we want to get to Vermillion." said Waluigi, once again reading off of the map.

"Puyo..." said Kirby.

"I agree." said Metaknight. To the others he said, "He said not to get lost, which I agree with. It's easy to get lost in a place like this."

They traveled to the south end of the city, after hitting two dead ends and getting lost three times, wasting twenty minutes in the process. Once there, they gave one last look at a city they'd probably never see again, and walked away.

Vermillion City was a five-mile walk from Saffron City, so they had a long time to talk.

"Did anyone else come with you?" asked Donkey Kong.

"Yes," said Mario. "When Luigi, Wario, and I left the Mushroom Kingdom realm there were twelve of us. We were joined by five more in the Kirby realm; three of which are here right now. Blooper died in the same realm, sacrificing his life to save ours. We left the Kirby realm and entered the Star Fox realm, where we met up with Fox, Falco, and Krystal. Toadette and Tiff were killed later and we split up with Wario and Dry Bones."

"The reason for that," interrupted Wario. "Was because we got a message from a walkie talkie that Waluigi gave us. It led us back to the Kirby realm tunnel and into a trap. Dry Bones was killed, but I managed to escape through the Kirby and Mushroom Kingdom realms when I met Prince Peasley."

"My walkie talkie was confiscated from me while I was recovering from that explosion." said Waluigi.

"Sorry about that." Mario grinned.

"I'm alive, no harm done."

"Well, after we separated from them, we traveled to the Legend of Zelda realm and were right outside the Rebellion tunnel when we lost Birdo. We made it to Rebellion and got our mission from Master Hand." finished Mario.

"If I did my math right," said Cranky. "Fourteen of you made it to Rebellion."

"Sixteen." corrected Waluigi. "Link and I made it to Rebellion around an hour before they did."

"Well I counted ten of you when we joined." finished Cranky.

"Four of us stayed in Rebellion. One had an injured leg, three stayed of their own free will." answered Mario. At the mention of Toad's leg; Fox, Falco, and Krystal dropped their heads in guilt.

"And then," Mario continued. "The twelve of us that went on this mission traveled through the Legend of Zelda realm and into the Mushroom Kingdom realm. While there, we were captured and imprisoned. While imprisoned, one of us, Hammer Bro, was killed. We escaped, thanks to Kirby here, and made it to the Beanbean Kingdom realm. We made it to the main city when another of us, Yoshi, decided to stay behind and fight. We haven't seen him since."

By this time they had cleared half the distance to Vermillion. They traveled several more minutes in silence before Cranky Kong said, "It's time you know what K. Rool is."

"An ugly croc?" Diddy Kong jokingly said.

"And a Supreme General." finished Cranky Kong. This was met with several confused looks. "I overheard to of those damn soldiers talking about it a couple of days ago. They were talking about King K. Rool:

"'That croc is so creepy. I would hate to get on his bad side' said one.

"'I know. But he's only the seventh of ten Supreme Generals. You know the previous top ten bad guys.' said another.

"'Yeah, I heard about them. I've only heard that Bowser, Ganondorf, and Ridley were them, though.' said the first.

"'Those are just the top three; the most famous and deadly. They're numbered: Four is Cackletta; five is Vaati; six is the Titan Dweevil; seven is K. Rool; eight is Wolf; nine is Petey Piranha; ten is Samurai Goroh.' said the second.

"'Dang. Most of those guys are fierce. But who's Vaati, Goroh, and Titan Dweevil?' asked the first.

"After that, I didn't hear anything else. All I know is that K. Rool is a horrible, vicious crocodile and he's only seventh." finished Cranky.

"There are six more people more ferocious than him?" asked Prince Peasley, looking at his sword.

"And three that aren't." Fox added. "One of which is our enemy."

"And Ganondorf," said Link. "And Vaati."

"And Bowser." said Mario.

"And Cackletta." said Prince Peasley.

"And Petey Piranha." said Luigi.

"Well," Falco grinned. "If we ever find these guys-" he paused and cocked his gun. "-let's make sure we leave our mark." He fired at a tree, creating a large O-shaped hole in the tree. He then changed the gun's settings and fired at the same tree. It made a T-shaped hole right next to the O.

"OT? What's that mean?" asked Luigi.

"It means-" Falco paused and pointed at himself, Fox, Krystal, Mario, Kirby, Waluigi, Link, King Dedede, Luigi, and Metkanight. "-the original twelve people that originally set off on this mission."

"Original Twelve?" asked a skeptical King Dedede.

"Original eleven is more like it." grumbled Fox.

"Or ten." said Waluigi.

"Enough," said Diddy. "We're almost there. I don't need any negative thoughts. After all we are going on a cruise."

This thought lightened everyone's moods and all of them had a small spring in their step. Food, massages, and an ocean view; the S. S. Anne was a luxury cruise liner. Only Mario and Metaknight were troubled by how they would get on, after all it would cost a lot of money.

---------------------

Vermillion City was a medium sized city. On its south side was a pier with two boats in it, on its east side was a path that led to another route, on its west was several buildings, including the gym, and the group that entered through the north side.

They walked through the city and reached the pier as a guy yelled, "Final call for the S.S. Anne!" into a microphone. Everyone walked a lot faster at this and reached the ticket booth within a few seconds.

"How may I-" the teller began.

"We need fifteen tickets for the S. S. Anne please." interrupted Mario.

"I'm sorry, but there are only ten tickets" she said sadly.

Everyone groaned. "Of course." grumbled Wario.

Mario suddenly remembered what two whiney kids had said earlier and asked, "Do Pokémon need tickets?"

The teller shook her head. Mario thanked her and whispered to the others, "Kirby is a Jiglypuff, Diddy is a Mankey. We need three more Pokemon."

"Puyo?" Kirby groaned.

"Yes, you have to." said Metaknight.

Kirby pouted, but they ignored him. "I heard that there was a stronger form of Mankey. Maybe Donkey Kong could be it?" suggested Waluigi.

"Cranky could probably pass as another Mankey." said Diddy.

"This will never work." groaned King Dedede.

"Hey!" A young kid, younger than 10 years old, walked up to them. "Nice fat Golduck you have there. But why'd you dress him up in that ridiculous outfit?" He asked, pointing at King Dedede.

"Excuse me?" King Dedede asked, insulted, looking down at his clothes while everyone else tried not to laugh. The boy's eyes grew wide and his mouth opened in shock when he heard King Dedede talk. "Fat? Ridiculous outfit? Fat! This, young boy, is what the kings wear. I am royalty, young sir! I am not fat, either-" before he could finish, Fox stepped forward and covered Dedede's mouth before he could say anymore.

The kid's mouth had opened as wide as it could. He raised a finger and gasped, "You can talk!"

At this point, King Dedede's face became bright red. Insulted at how this kid could be surprised that he could talk, he opened his mouth to yell. However, Fox, Falco, and Link ran forward and covered his mouth with their hands to prevent him from making a scene.

"Get out of here, kid." said Falco, and the kid obeyed.

Mario turned his head from the scene to look at the teller, but saw that she had her mouth open as well and was staring at King Dedede. "Now," he grinned. "About those tickets." The teller turned her head towards him, but still had her mouth open.

-----------------

"Nice ship." said Wario as he snatched a chocolate treat off of an appetizer tray that a waiter was carrying. "I could get used to living like this."

"I wouldn't get used to it." said Fox. "They said the ship would reach Slateport tomorrow afternoon."

Wario only shrugged and walked away with Waluigi. After they left, everyone split up, going all around the ship. There were several rooms to explore; as it was a luxury cruise, so they rarely saw each other that day.

----------------

Three hours later, as the moon was starting rise above the horizon, Mario was heading towards the room he had been assigned to. He passed Fox and Krystal's room when the door opened. Falco grabbed his arm and pulled him in. He gave a small gasp of surprise as he entered the room. All ten of the Original Twelve were here.

"Took you long enough!" grunted King Dedede.

"What's going on?" asked Mario.

"Puyo!" said Kirby.

"Again in English, please."

"He said, 'Fox brought all of us here. We don't know why.'" explained Metaknight.

"It amazes me how Kirby can say whole sentences in only one word." said Link.

"Puyo!"

"He said 'thank you.'" said Metaknight.

"So why'd you call us here?" Mario repeated.

"I don't know." Fox replied. "Ask Falco."

"Why am I not surprised?" groaned Mario.

"Hey," Falco's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Mario waved him off. "It doesn't matter."

"Whatever. I called you here because six of us-" He pointed out himself, Fox, Waluigi, King Dedede, Kirby, and Luigi. "-aren't these Realm Reps, so we don't know who we're looking for and where we're going."

"You're right." said Metaknight. "You guys deserve to know."

"We'll take turns, alright?" said Krystal.

"I'll go first," said Link and he stood up. He cleared his throat dramatically and said, "There are fifteen Realm Representatives! Master Hand is the first; Realm Representative or Rebellion. You have already met him, however."

"And then there's us four; Link, Mario, Krystal, and Me." Metaknight continued. "We are currently on the S. S. Anne in the Pokémon realm."

Everyone, even Falco, was grinning at their dramatics. "And now we go to the Beanbean Kingdom." said Mario. "Where we find Prince Peasley, the Realm Representitive of the Beanbean Kingdom realm, happily skipping around the Beanbean Castle!" He was interrupted when Link playfully slapped the back of his head.

"And we pass through to Jungle Japes," continued Krystal. "Where Diddy Kong is; the Realm Representative of his home realm."

"Alright," interrupted Falco, grinning. "Be serious now."

"Alright," said Link. "You have already seen Mewtwo, the Realm Representative of the Pokemon realm, so the next one is Ness. He's the Realm Representative or the Earthbound realm and the youngest Realm Rep."

"Next," giggled Krystal. "Is the so-called ladies man, hotheaded, Realm Representative: Captain Falcon. Strong, fast, adn he drives a sweet car." She broke off and stared into space with a dreamy expression on her face.

Metaknight rolled his eyes and continued. "He's also the Realm Representative of the F-Zero realm. Once there, we'll go to the Fire Emblem realm. Once there we'll find Eliwood. He's the head knight in Elibe and the Realm Rep of the Fire Emblem realm. Once there, we'll pass through to the Kid Icarus realm and find Pit. He's a head angel, but he's almost as young as Ness. He's also the Realm Rep of his realm and he's the most immature of all of us."

"And finally," finished Mario. "We'll go to the famous Metroid realm and meet Samus. She's obviously the Realm Rep or the realm. After that, our final realm, hopefully, will be the Pikmin realm. There, we'll meet Captain Olimar. He's the Realm Rep of the Pikmin realm, but he'll always be in a space suit. He can't breathe our air, but he has to get a refill every few months or so."

There was a few seconds of pause. "Anything else?" asked Falco.

"You only asked for the realms we're going to and who the Realm Reps were." said Krystal.

"No," said Fox. "I only counted fourteen. Who'd you leave out?"

"Let's see." Link said to himself. "Captain Falcon, Eliwood, Samus, Master Chief!"

"Oh yeah." said Metaknight. "The reason here in the first place."

"I heard Master Hand talking about him," said Luigi. "Isn't he, for lack of a better term, the bad guy?"

"Exactly." said Mario. "Without him, none of this would have happened. If he hadn't blown Sonic up-" He paused. "-we wouldn't be here."

At the mention of Sonic's name, everyone looked up. "Sonic?" asked Link.

Mario nodded. "After Crazy Hand was killed by Sonic, he took over. He was the one who released those top ten bad guys. He was the one who created the name 'Supreme General' and assigned the bad guys their positions. Two months after he came into power, Master Chief and two others, as much as I heard, ambushed Sonic. He managed to break free, but was overpowered and blown up."

"And then Master Chief became the new leader." finished Metaknight.

"Anything else you want to tell us?" asked Falco.

"Yes." said Mario. "For everyone here. As long as one of us survives, we continue the mission. We need to complete it as fast as possible and lose as few lives as possible."

"I always knew there was a dark side." said Falco. "But didn't we already know about this?"

"Right, but tell you the truth. You would be the most likely to forget." said Metaknight.

"Hey," Falco stood up. "When I accept a mission, I don't give up until I complete it."

"He's right." Fox agreed. "Even though he arrives late half the time." Falco only grinned.

"Anyway," said Mario. "Once we get off this ship, we'll probably never have a good night sleep. That's only if we're lucky enough to find the time to sleep at all! There may be friendly places, but we're in the middle of a war. And in a war, you have to make sacrifices."

Everyone went silent; Falco's grin faded. This new thought had scarcely occurred to them. They had to cherish these last few peaceful moments while they could.

The silence was interrupted by a knock on the door. Mario opened the door and Wario stepped in.

"What's going on?" he asked. "You having a party?"


	17. Chapter 16

1. Mario 2. Luigi 3. Kirby 4. King Dedede 5. Metaknight 6. Fox 7. Falco 8. Krystal 9. Waluigi 10. Link 11. Wario 12. Prince Peasley 13. Diddy Kong 14. Donkey Kong 15. Cranky Kong :::::::::::16. Yoshi

Master Chief was sitting in his office facing the window, just watching the moon rise and the sun fall, causing the sky to blacken. His head was nodding and he tried to close his eyes, forcing himself to fall asleep. He managed to keep his eyes at a squint; half asleep and not focusing on anything. His eyes finally closed and he was about to fall asleep when a large, blinding light lit up the entire room. His eyes opened automatically and he was forced to look at the light.

What he saw, several feet above the ground, was a large ship. It had materialized out of thin air, but that's not what shocked him. What did shock him were the red flames coming from the rear of the ship. It was flying at a dangerously fast speed and was almost out of view when Master Chief saw a large section of the ship fall off the original body and plummet to the ground. The other disappeared in a light equally as bright as the one that had woken up Master Chief earlier.

The entire display lasted only a few seconds, but Master Chief knew that he had absolutely no hope of falling asleep now. Curiosity took over his mind and he walked out of the room, heading for the crash site.

He reached a large crowd of soldiers huddled around a giant piece of flaming metal. It was the read end of the ship; the part that had been covered in flames. It took Master Chief twenty minutes to reach the ship and the flames still hadn't burned out. Master Chief pushed himself towards the front of the crowd to get a closer look. Through the flames he could see the last five letters of the name that had been painted onto the ship; although the paint had mostly shipped away.

"Royer?" He whispered to himself. The thought came to him suddenly, a thought that sent fear and anticipation throughout his body. He knew what the ship had been called. It was the only ship for several thousand miles that could appear and disappear in that matter. "Destroyer."

-----------------

Two hours earlier...

"Yo... shi... yo... yo... shi..." Yoshi groaned in his sleep; the words he could barely understand, yet he could still hear, still floated around in his head.

"Yo, man?" Yoshi finally gained sense enough to understand. "Shit. He's still asleep." Yoshi opened his eyes, although they felt like they were weighed down by bricks. "Hey wait; he's awake!"

"Where am I?" Yoshi groaned.

"You were gonna die, dude. We barely had enough time to get the paramedics here before your lungs gave out. What happened to you?"

"I don't need to know what happened while I was unconscious. I need to know where I am and if I'm okay or not!" said Yoshi in his cracked voice.

"Easy, man. Rest your voice. We're on the Destroyer ship. It's powering up to take us home."

Yoshi still couldn't see; everything was a blur. He recognized the voice, however. "Matthew?" He groaned.

"Yeah," Matthew said. "I'm here. You know, I still haven't finished my story."

Yoshi grinned. "We're still in Jungle Japes?" Matthew nodded and Yoshi groaned. "Why can't we leave?"

"I heard it takes about two hours for it to fully charge up." said Matthew. "We only started a few minutes ago."

"Two hours?" groaned Yoshi. He looked at his stomach and saw that his entire body was covered in white bandages. His lower half was completely numb, so he couldn't move anything from the chest down. "When will the numbness end?"

"In an hour. Now do you want to hear what happened with me and Bowser or not?" demanded Matthew.

Yoshi grinned. "Alright, let's hear it." he said.

"Finally." Matthew began. "For Bowser, who was apparently even tougher than a guy who killed fifteen of my men, I pretty much pissed my pants when Crazy told me and Master Chief to capture him. I even declined the offer! Unfortunately, Master Chief ordered, for he was still a higher rank than me, me to go. Along with us were over fifty men! When all of those men arrived I wondered how tough Bowser could be.

"We set off for the Mushroom Kingdom realm; heading for the famous and easy-to-find Bowser's Castle. We found it within a few hours, but finding it was the easy part. When we reached the castle, tons of little brown blobs and red and green shelled turtles came from the castle's doors. They were easy kills, but we didn't bring enough ammo to kill all of them. Master Chief jumped on one that was coming close and it was crushed instantly. We managed to crush most of the remaining army and make it insider without any causalities.

"We made it inside, but Bowser was at the top floor. There were eight floors, and with each floor came traps and enemies and at the end was one of those mini-Bowsers. I think they were his children. Anyway, the first floor had three doors to start off. We split up, but after a while all three groups landed right in the same room. We went though the hallways several times, trying out several combinations before we gave up. Instead of going through those hallways, we blew up the room. After the dynamite went off, there was the first small Bowser: A turtle with blur hair and swirling eyed glasses. He tried running, but we opened fire and splattered his blood all over the wall. Stairs opened up behind him and we climbed them to the second floor.

"The next floor broke away beneath our feet as soon as we took a step inside. Three men fell into the spike-filled chamber below. The only way across was a thin brick line extending out from the wall. It wasn't even large enough to hold our entire foot walking side way; one in front of the other. We climbed in single file because of this. It took us twenty minutes before we made it to the other side; and even then ten of us fell down as we climbed.

"In front of us was a hallway leading to the right. I heard a slamming noise and told them to stop, but two soldiers ran to the hallway and blew up on sight. I had no idea what the hell happened until a soldier threw a small pistol into the hallway. It laid there for a few seconds before we saw a small hill-shaped piece of ground coming from the right. The ground hit the gun and the gun exploded.

"We ran to the hallway and looked down to see who, or what, was creating these shockwaves. We saw that the hallway was extremely long; over one hundred yards in length. At the other end of the hallway was a fat mini-Bowser wearing a red mask and red sunglasses.

"Anyway, he jumped up into the air, flipped around without losing any height, ducked into his shell, and slammed into the ground. This caused a shockwave that sent a hill of ground, similar to the one we saw before, towards us. One unlucky soldier thought that he could jump it. He tried jumping, succeeded, but a second shockwave that came right after the first reached him and he was blown up. The shockwave diminished after hitting the solider, but the mini Bowser kept creating shockwave after shockwave after shockwave. One after the other every single second.

"Finally I just said, 'The hell with it!' I took out my mini-machine gun, as I liked to call it, and jumped out from the corner as soon as the previous shockwave had passed. I screamed something even I couldn't understand, shot blindly down the hall, and jumped back into the other room.

"A few second after the gunfire, the shockwaves stopped coming. After the last one passed it was silent for several seconds. We peeked out from around the corner and saw that the turtle had been shot once in the head and several times in the stomach. I was personally shocked, but the others congratulated me. We walked passed the dead turtle and through the stairs.

"On floor three, the entire floor was decorated pink. We were completely awestruck. We stared at the room for five minutes until an anvil, yes an anvil, was dropped onto one of our men. His head was crushed and he died. We looked up and saw a girl turtle with pink lipstick and wearing a pink bow in a window around thirty feet off the ground. We fired at her but she ducked back in and closed the window. We circled around the window, waiting for her to come out, but we heard a click and another anvil killed one of my men. I swung my gun around and saw her on a different wall. I fired at her but she ducked inside again.

"This went on for a few minutes. She'd throw an anvil, or some sort of heavy object, down at us and we'd fire at her, but she'd duck insider and reappear at a different wall. Finally I saw that she'd take around thirty seconds before she reappeared, so I whispered to my men to wait thirty seconds before firing the Hell outta the walls. She threw a dumbbell down, but we all dodged it, and disappeared and I started counting. When I reached thirty I yelled, "Fire!" And the entire room was filled with gunfire. Bullets hit the walls, cracked the windows, and destroyed the pink paint until, around five seconds later, we heard a girl's scream from a window. The girl turtle appeared holding her chest with bloody hands. She took two steps and fell down the thirty foot drop to her death. We eventually found the stairs and climbed to the next floor."

"I'm sorry," Yoshi interrupted. "But is this entire story about the Koopalings?"

"Not all of it." said Matthew defensively.

"Can you just skip to Bowser." said Yoshi.

"Alright, but there'll be a gaping hole in my story."

"I'll live."

"Well, there were seventeen of us left when we reached Bowser's room. We killed all seven of those- Koopalings, was it? Anyway, Bowser was completely enraged at his children's deaths. He roared and charged at us. We tried to get out of the way, but he was too fast: He reached out and grabbed not two, but three soldiers in his arms. He threw one against the ground and stomped on his head. He took another and threw him at the ceiling. Then, when he dropped, he landed on one of Bowser's very sharp spikes. The third one Bowser held him near his mouth and bit his head clean off. He spit the head away and dropped the body.

"'Kill my family and I'll kill you!' He roared and he charged again. He grabbed another soldier and slammed him into the ground; crushing his head with his foot. He charged at a group of us, but I had had enough. 'Fire!' I yelled. 'Fire the darts!'

"Thirteen of us opened fire on him; unleashing a barrage of fifty sleeping darts stronger than the ones used on Petey Piranha. Twenty hit him in the face, but he still managed to yell, 'Run Junior! I'll be back!'

"What we didn't see until then was an eighth small Bowser. This one looked the most liked Bowser himself, although he was wearing a mask that covered the bottom half of his face. He jumped out from behind Bowser's throne and jumped out of the window. A few soldiers ran to the window, but I told them to leave him alone. Bowser was affected by the darts' sleeping potion, so we were safe from him. He fell asleep saying, 'Good luck my son.'"

Matthew stopped. Yoshi waited a few moments before asking, "Did you guys ever find Bowser Junior?"

"No, but I believe Bowser might have found him sooner or later." answered Matthew. "After we captured Bowser, I was promoted to the third-highest honor. Second went to Master Chief and the first, the leader of the entire army, went to Crazy Hand. Oh yes, I need to tell you this: I was one of the few people to see both Crazy Hand and Sonic get killed."

"You were?" Yoshi asked. A few seconds of thought and something hit him.

"Sonic?" "Sonic came in a large machine on the outskirts of Final Destination." replied Matthew. "It only took him a minute to race to Master Chief's tower with his speed. I was on another building close by, wearing binoculars luckily, so I managed to see the whole thing. Sonic ran up the side of the building and onto the roof. Crazy Hand was resting, but he woke up before Sonic could attack. Sonic charged up into his ball and slammed into Crazy. Crazy was knocked back, but was ready when Sonic tried the same thing: He grabbed Sonic in mid-air and threw him off of the building. Sonic charged up into the ball and defied the law of gravity by charging into the window of like the sixth story.

"A minute later he popped out from the building and started running up the wall again. He hid behind a few crates and, I guess Crazy Hand didn't know he was there; because Sonic charged up in his ball for over a minute before charging at Crazy Hand. Crazy caught Sonic, oh yes, but Sonic went through Crazy. It might've been his heart or something, but Crazy floated into the air and disappeared. Sonic became the new leader of the armies before he was killed by Master Chief."

A minute of pause. "Wow..." Yoshi said. He didn't know what to think about Matthew at this point: Whether to be glad that he had captured some of the worst bad guys in history, angry at how Matthew was a soldier who had probably killed some of his friends, or relieved that he had found an experienced friend who knew so much. He decided, at the moment, that he was relieved. However, Yoshi had absolutely no idea how he would regroup with the others. He wasn't much use at killing any soldiers at this point, so his new plan was to find the others and help them with the mission.

"The nurse said that you wouldn't be able to move properly for a few days." said Matthew. "Even with these advanced medicines."

Yoshi groaned. "Oh great. Well there goes that plan."

"Sorry," said Matthew. "What was that?"

"Nothing" Yoshi answered.

"Well it doesn't mean you have to lay in bed all day!" Matthew said encouragingly. "They said you'll be able to walk, though very slowly, after the numbing wears off."

A few seconds of silence and then Yoshi began to feel drowsy. He yawned. "Why am I so tired all of a sudden?"

"The final thing they told me to tell you," said Matthew. "Was that the drowsiness will come on and off over the next 24 hours. Good night!"

Yoshi groaned and willingly closed his eyes.

--------------------------

"Wake up!" A voice yelled in Yoshi's ear. Yoshi groaned and flipped over, barely aware of the other noises going on in the background. "Wake up!" Matthew yelled again and punched the back of Yoshi's head.

Yoshi opened one eye, and in that second his hearing and smell alerted him at once. "Whazzoing on?" He groaned.

"Fire!" said Matthew urgently. "In the back; where the engines are. We just went into trans-realm mode. If we don't cool those fires down, we could blow up! If we evacuate, we'll be stuck in this place forever."

"Why the Hell are you telling me this?" groaned a groggy Yoshi.

"I just wanted you to be informed on how you'll die before you do." shrugged Matthew and he ran out of the room.

There was no way Yoshi would sleep now; not with all of the screaming, arguing, and ordering echoing throughout the ship. He also could feel his body again; meaning the numbing had worn off. He could feel the heat on his charred skin, making his body feel a tingling pain. The ship was rocking dangerously back and forth. It buckled so hard that Yoshi fell off of the bed. He groaned as he slowly climbed back to his feet, only to be knocked down again by another sharp movement.

He heard a metallic snapping noise from outside his room. Several soldiers ran down the hallways past his door. Yoshi crawled to the door's entrance and saw that a large crack had appeared a few feet closer to the back of the ship. Yoshi gasped and began crawling to the front. He only got a few feet before he was grabbed under the armpits by two rough hands. Yoshi turned around and saw that Matthew had picked him up and was dragging him down the hallway. He pushed Yoshi into the open doorway and closed the door behind him.

No sooner than he did the ship buckled it's hardest: Moving up and down 20 feet in a span of three seconds. Twenty times it buckled before it suddenly stopped moving. Yoshi and Matthew had fallen and were now in a heap below a window. A large crunching sound was heard; one that caused them to cover their ears because it was so loud. Yoshi and Matthew climbed to the window and saw the bottom half of the ship flying towards the ground.

"We're home." said Matthew.

The ship tilted downwards, but started buckling again. Yoshi fell down as soon as the buckling started as he hadn't gotten used to walking. Matthew stayed positioned at the window. He gasped as he saw the Final Destination realm disappear below the ship, being replaced by a swirling vortex of rainbow colors.

"We're traveling like this with half a ship?" Matthew yelled deliriously. "Who gave the order?"

Matthew picked Yoshi up and continued dragging him through the ship. They made it to the front where dozens of soldiers were standing in the direction of a large screen. The screen was showing a pie chart: More than seventy five percent was red and the other chunk, which was shrinking fast, was green.

"Who gave the order to activate the hyperspace engines a second time?" Matthew demanded. He dropped Yoshi and stepped over him, making himself the center of attention.

"Sir," a soldier stepped forward and saluted him. "We didn't do it. It activated on its own."

"But even if we did, sir," another soldier stepped forward. "If we hadn't, the angle of the ship would have caused us to crash."

"How did we come up with the power?" asked Matthew.

"That's a mystery to us, sir." said the first soldier. He pointed at the screen. "That screen is telling us how much power we have. When it's all red, we'll be stuck here. Without engines we can't create more power."

"How long to we have?" asked Matthew.

"To get to the Pikmin realm?" answered the second soldier. "A minute longer."

"Before the engines run out?" answered a third soldier. "Thirty seconds."

"Damn." said Matthew. "Quick! Send all power into the hyperspace engine. Lights, coffee maker, anything!"

Soldiers scrambled around, running into each other and yelling insults and swears, trying to get to random seats. Only twenty seconds before they were doomed; every second counted. Matthew was sweating bullets and Yoshi had no clue as to what was going on. His head was still swimming from being dragged throughout the ship.

"I got it!" A soldier yelled victoriously. Everyone turned their heads to the screen and saw that the pie chart, which had been dangerously close to turning fully red, had filled a few green spots. "This'll give us just enough time to reach the Pikmin realm."

"Why the Pikmin realm?" Yoshi groaned.

"That's where we were angled when we shot out of Final Destination realm." answered Matthew.

Everyone had gone dead silent. The ship's lights went out and the room was covered in darkness; the only light was the luminescent glow of the world outside the ship. Everyone was holding onto their seats for dear life and the ship began to buckle. Yoshi, as he had nothing to hold onto, was thrown across the hallway with each buckle and eventually landed in the back of the ship. Matthew was counting the seconds in his head. Yoshi was close to throwing up.

Finally the buckling stopped and everyone looked at the pie chart: A slimmer of green was left. The window's lights changed and showed the darkness of the Pikmin realm. It was midnight in the realm, so the room was still dark. Suddenly the ship crashed and everyone was thrown forward. The front of the ship had hit something large, yet soft, as the ship wasn't damaged in the crash.

"Everyone alright?" Matthew asked. Groans answered.

Suddenly the front of the ship began crunching together. Large, sharp, white rocks ripped through the hard metal. People scrambled to get away from the closing teeth. The teeth chomped through the metal and closed down, trapping a soldier and crushing him to death. The other soldiers climbed towards the hallway when the ship tipped upwards. Everyone slid through the open door and through each hallway. The last door, leading to the section that had broken off, was wide open. Underneath the ship was a large red bug with white spots and a large mouth with very sharp teeth opened up and ready to swallow anything.

Soldiers screamed as they hurtled towards the open doors, reaching out for anything to grab a hold of. Matthew and a few other lucky soldiers managed to latch onto a doorway. All others were swallowed by the monster. When the bulborb had its full it screamed a high pitched scream unnatural for a creature of its size. The ship evened out and the bulborb left.

Eight soldiers crawled out of the ship alive. They watched the bulborb join a much larger bulborb and walk away. Yoshi crawled out from behind a boulder, saw the others, and yelled, "What the Hell was that!"


	18. Chapter 17

The S.S. Anne docked in Slateport City during the afternoon the day after it set off. Passengers moved in a large crowd to get off the ship. It was close to impossible to stay with loved ones; especially if your group is more than 5 people. On the drawbridge, struggling to stay together, was the newly-named "Realm Rep. Recall" group; featuring Mario, Link, and the others.

"I hate this!" groaned King Dedede. "I shouldn't have to suffer this torture."

Miraculously, they managed to leave the pier in one group. They brushed themselves off, looking refreshed from the voyage and tired from the scramble.

"Mewtwo said that we'd meet some allies here." said Link. "The question is, where are they?"

"Mario?" A voice of a maturing teenager came from behind them. They turned around and saw a 15-year old boy with brown hair, brown eyes, and was 5 feet tall looking at them. He was wearing a blue shirt with a black jacket over it, blue jeans with two black stripes near the ankles, white shoes, and a black hat with a bright yellow "S" on it.

"That would be me." said Mario, suspiciously eyeing the boy.

"Mewtwo sent me to find you," the boy replied. He opened his hand and revealed four red and white balls between each finger. "And give you these."

Mario reached forward to take them, but the boy withdrew his hand and grinned. "Three are mine; one is my friend's, but he didn't come. I'm not leaving my Pokemon behind." He paused and touched hit hat dramatically. "I'm coming with you."

This startled everyone. "You can't come," said Fox.

"And why not?" asked the boy.

"You're too young." replied Fox. The boy simply pointed at Diddy Kong.

"He has a point there." Diddy grinned.

"You don't even know where we're going." said Falco.

"Hah!" The boy laughed. "This may come as a shock to you but I've been to all fifteen of these realms. I know that you're going to save all of these Realm Representatives and stop Master Chief from taking over this world."

"How do you know all of this?" asked Mario.

"I'm nosey." Said the boy as he grinned.

"I like him!" Falco grinned.

"Fine." said Link. "Alright. It's against my better judgment, but you can come."

"I thought you'd agree." said the boy, still grinning. "My name's Steven and these are my Pokemon." He threw the four balls into the air. They opened up and, in a white light, four animals appeared. "Meet Lucario, Pikachu, Charmander, and Jigglypuff."

"Those are going to help us?" snorted King Dedede, looking disappointed at Jigglypuff and Pikachu.

"Hey, those can only evolve in a special event that I haven't accomplished yet." Steven defensively replied. "They're stronger than they look."

"They'll make twenty of us." counted Krystal.

"A good number." said Cranky. "Now can we move on?"

"Where's Kirby?" asked Metaknight.

Everyone groaned. They looked around the crowded pier before Fox grinned and said, "There he is."

Kirby was playing tag with a yellow mouse, even smaller than Pikachu, named Pichu. Metaknight walked over and told Kirby to leave. Pichu and Kirby both looked disappointed, so Kirby invited Pichu to follow them.

"Looks like Kirby has a new friend." said Krystal as they walked towards the group.

"A Pichu?" Steven looked skeptical. "I dunno."

"We might as well." Mario shrugged. "We need to get as many people as are willing."

"Alright," shrugged Steven. He reached into his pocket and pulled out another red and white ball. He threw it at the Pichu. The ball hit Pichu on the head and it was sucked inside the ball in a red light. The ball shook for a few seconds before the light on the front of the ball dimmed and the ball stopped shaking. Steven picked up the ball and said, "He's ours now." Steven, after recalling all of his Pokemon into their Pokeballs, lead them through Slateport and onto the beach. They followed him into a remote, barely touched, strip of the beach. Embeaded in the rock, behind a crack in the wall, was the tunnel.

"For such a populated realm," Steven explained. "I suppose it had to be in a place that no one would find it."

"Impressive." said Wario.

They walked through the tunnel and entered the next realm: Earthbound. As most tunnels were near, or in, the main character's hometown, they had to be in places that people will never, or rarely, find them. This particular tunnel sent them right in the hole where a meteor had hit Onett ten years earlier. The meteor had been removed, but no one dared to go near the hole due to an old legend that everyone believed.

They climbed out of the large hole and brushed off the dirt that had accumulated onto their skin and clothes. Mario pulled out a pair of binoculars that he had kept when he disguised himself as a soldier, and looked at the small town beneath them.

"Not good," he whispered. "Soldiers everywhere patrolling the streets."

"They've been doing that for a few days now." Came a voice from behind a tree. "The citizens just think of them as tourists, but they kill."

Mario walked behind the tree and pulled Ness out into the open. Though ten years had passed, Ness hadn't aged a bit. His expression didn't change even when he saw the others. "They killed most of my friends."

"I'm sorry." Link said sincerely.

"I know." said Ness. "Thank you. But they killed Paula and Jeff, two of my closest friends." He looked up into the sky, staring at the moon, and said, "Hello everyone." with little emotion.

"Is there anyone else," asked Fox. "Besides you?"

Ness nodded. "One is Poo; my friend. The other is a boy who looks very similar to me. He calls himself Lucas. He came to Onett the day before the invasion. He won't tell me where or when he came from."

"Where are they?" asked Luigi. "We need to leave as soon as possibly."

Ness nodded once more. He lead them down the mountain and into his house. "They also killed my family."

"Oh no." whispered Krystal.

"They check this house every once in a while. We usually sneak in at night." explained Ness. "Guys! I found some new friends!"

"Who is it?" came a gruff kid's voice.

"You may be surprised." said Ness. He closed the front door and grinned, showing the first sign of emotion that they've seen.

Poo, dressed in a Japanese karate outfit, and Lucas, dressed in his yellow and red striped shirt and loose pants, came down the stairs. Poo gasped and readied his fists but Lucas seemed unsurprised.

"Mario." he said and pointed at Mario. "Link, Krystal, Diddy Kong, Peasley, Luigi, Fox, Falco, Kirby, King Dedede, Donkey Kong, Wario, Waluigi, Cranky Kong, Steven and Pokemon." He said everyone's name and pointed at the person he spoke of. He smiled and said, "I am Lucas" and pointed at himself.

Everyone was startled.

"When are we leaving?" asked Poo; whose voice was heard a minute ago.

"As soon as possible." assured Link. Poo nodded in response.

"Where is the next tunnel?" asked Luigi.

"In Fourside," Ness replied. "It's a large city with a park in it. We'll need to take a bus to get there."

"We'll go there in the morning." said Mario.

"Wait," interrupted Steven. "Why not now? We have a few hours until night. We can make it."

"Trust me," replied Mario. "You do not want to be in the F-Zero realm at night. It'll take us too long to get to Fourside and then to F-Zero."

"Then its decided." said Lucas. "We star here and-"

Lucas was interrupted by a loud knock at the door. "Hide!" Ness hissed. They ran for the back door as fast and as quietly as they could. Before they could all make it through, however, the front door burst open; revealing four soldiers.

"Freeze!" The lead soldier yelled. He fired at them. Ness, Steven, and Waluigi, the only ones still in the house, had to duck to the right to avoid them. The bullets embedded themselves in the wall. "After him!" 

"This way!" Ness whispered. He opened a door and they went inside. Ness shut the door, turned on a switch and the room lit up. It was a small hallway leading to the basement. They ran down the hallway and were in the basement when the door was kicked open. They could hear the soldiers running through the hallway.

Ness leads them to another hallway leading beneath the stairs and into the center of the house. The soldiers were catching up to them no matter how fast they ran. They reached another door which lead outside. They ran through; Waluigi stopping to make the useless blockade by locking the door.

They were under the porch in front of the house. Nobody was in sight, so they sprinted away. They ran towards the back of the house and up the mountain.

Ness stopped them and they dove into the bushes. "That was too close." gasped Ness.

"That was awesome!" said Steven. He grinned, but was slapped in the back of the head by Waluigi.

They took three minutes to catch their breath before moving again. They headed towards the tunnel, where Ness said he could sense a large group of people. They reached the tunnel's entrance and saw everyone else sitting in different positions around the hole. When Ness, Steven, and Waluigi came up, they raised their heads and saw them.

"What took you so long?" asked Falco.

"We got held up." said Steven.

"So did we: We had two on our tail." explained Prince Peasley. "We managed to ambush them and kill them. We also stole their guns and any weapons that they had."

"We'd better be careful from now on." said Ness. "Two soldiers managed to escape, and I know they'll tell Master Chief himself. Two hours later, Master Chief was still in shock at the possible destruction of his ship. Though it had happened this morning, he still couldn't get the image out of his head. "What had gone wrong?" He continued to ask himself. To complicate things further: A soldier ran through the door.

"Sir!" He said. "We have reports of the young boy you warned us about. He had a group of fifteen or more people at his house."

"Damn it." Master Chief groaned. "It's real. It's all real."

"Sir?"

"Sorry. Anything else?"

"Yes. We've gotten reports that Mario and Link were two of the people in Ness's house."

"What!" Master Chief gasped. "If Mario and Link were there... then that means that the other ten people reported must have been there too. The conspiracy, the revolution, must be happening!"

"I don't quite understand sir." the soldier said.

"Send word... send word to tell all soldiers to put up wanted posters of classification 14RR in every realm that we have under control."

"Yes sir!" The soldier left.

"Alright guys. You want to play it the hard way?" Master Chief asked the chalkboard. "Then I'll play the hard way. You won't be able to go anywhere without a large picture of you seen in almost every realm." Master Chief then started laughing. It was late at night in each realm, but few people could not sleep at all. Mario, Link, Luigi, and Ness had taken a small walk around the crater, explaining to Ness their mission.

"So that's Master Hand's plan?" asked Ness after they had finished.

"As much as we know anyway." replied Link.

There was a few seconds of pause.

"Do you know who Petey Piranha is?" asked Ness.

Mario and Luigi both stopped. "Where did that come from?" asked Luigi.

Ness shrugged. "He was announced two days ago, a few hours after the soldiers attacked. A deep man's voice came from Fourside. We all heard it from here. The voice said, 'All who break the law will meet with Petey Piranha!'"

Mario and Luigi glanced at each other nervously. "He's here?" whispered Mario.

"Should we do something?" asked Link.

"Well, we can't let people actually meet him." said Luigi. "Who knows what he'll do to them?"

"He'll eat them." said Ness grimly. "He's already eaten a few, according to Lucas. He... he heard their screams. They also... fed Jeff to him."

Luigi gulped, but all four of them lowered their heads in respect. "We have to stop him" said Mario. "It's time we kill one of those Supreme Generals."

"Tomorrow." said Link. "Tomorrow Petey dies." Link then unsheathed his sword, swung it around, and stuck it in the ground with both hands on the handle.

"Agreed." said Ness. Mario and Luigi both nodded, but looked at each other nervously; wondering how they'd actually do it. The next day, Mario, Link, and Ness told the others about their plan.

"Killing Petey?" asked Waluigi. "Are you sure?"

"Positive." said Mario. "We need to help these people. Petey is eating them!"

"I know, but what about the mission?" asked Waluigi.

"They're right," said Falco. "We can take a side trip to take him down. Besides, he's on the way to our tunnel; possibly guarding it."

"Can't disagree with that logic." grinned Fox.

"So who's in?" asked Mario. Everyone raised their hands and cheered.


	19. Chapter 18

1. Mario  
2. Luigi  
3. Kirby  
4. King Dedede  
5. Metaknight  
6. Fox  
7. Falco  
8. Krystal  
9. Waluigi  
10. Link  
11. Wario  
12. Prince Peasley  
13. Diddy Kong  
14. Donkey Kong  
15. Cranky Kong  
16. Steven  
17. Ness  
18. Lucas  
19. Poo

20. Yoshi

They ran down the mountain until they were at the edge of the town. They hid in the bushes near Onett; waiting until Ness pointed out a bus. They sprinted across the road and crammed into the bus. The bus driver, or any passengers, didn't pay any attention to them even though they caused a pile up as they sat down. Due to the seating arrangement, Waluigi had to be next to Donkey Kong and was squashed against the window.

"Can't breathe..." Waluigi groaned.

The bus took a half hour to reach Fourside, but when they got out Ness and Poo gasped. The others didn't see anything wrong except for the moon that was shining overhead even though it was early in the morning, but to Ness and Poo the entire city had changed. It now had the lights and appearance of Moonside, but there were no people in sight. Several buildings had been knocked down or were beginning to crumble and the parks had been filled with trash and graffiti.

"Now," said Falco. "Where's Petey?"

"Up there." said Lucas, pointing at the tallest building in the city.

"Figures." groaned Steven.

They walked through the building's doors and into a white room that had been covered in a brown liquid graffiti that had bits of white in it. They climbed the partly destroyed stairs and saw that the second floor was the same as the first. Each of the fifty floors they climbed was filled with graffiti and each floor had been destroyed more than the previous one. The floor underneath the roof had been completely destroyed, and the only floor shown was a chunk leading from the stairs to a large pile of rubble tall enough to reach the roof.

They began climbing the pile of rubble and kept fairly even, though Link, in his hurry, reached the top before anyone. He say Petey Piranha, asleep, only thirty feet away from the hole with its back facing him. He grinned. "One shot ought to do it." He reached for an arrow and grasped air. He slapped his head. "Perfect. The one time I need an arrow."

By this time, Donkey Kong, Diddy, and Mario had made it up next to him. "Something wrong?" Mario asked him when he saw Link's expression.

Link grimanced. "No arrows." He said.

Mario shrugged.

"When do we attack?" asked Diddy.

"Soon." said Fox as he, Falco, and Metaknight reached them. "As soon as everyone comes up, we charge."

"This is so cool!" squealed Diddy.

"If I had just one arrow," said Link. "I could take him out."

"You don't know how tough he is." said Mario.

When everyone reached the top, Fox explained the plan. "We charge on my signal: Falco, Krystal, and I will shoot him from afar. You guys attack and kill him before he even wakes up. If he does wake up, leave Petey open for our three sword-wielders to finish the job."

Everyone agreed to this, so Fox started counting down. "Five... four... three... two..." Everyone prepared for the charge. "One... Charge!"

They charged out from the hole: Fox, Falco, and Krystal gave off a few shots at Petey's head, but that only woke him up and angered him. Several people stopped running when Petey stood up to his full ten foot height and gave a growl of anger. Petey turned around and three people stepped backwards in fear.

"Plan B," yelled Fox. "Plan B!"

Link, Metaknight, and Prince Peasley ran towards Petey with their swords held high. Mario threw a fireball at Petey, which hit and caused Petey to turn towards him. Petey jumped high in the air and hovered there, flapping its giant leaves wildly.

"I forgot he could do that." groaned Mario.

Petey floated for a few more second before lowering his leaves, curling himself into a ball, and dropping. Everyone scrambled to get out of the way before Petey crashed into the building. The building almost broke in half with the hole that Petey left, as he went straight through the floor and disappeared from sight. The entire building began to shake and the roof began to crack and break, forcing everyone to retreat down to the floor below.

When they dropped down, they saw that Petey had broken through this floor as well. Wario looked down the hole and saw that Petey had broken through every floor that he could see which was almost at the bottom floor. He turned around, faced the others, grinned, and said, "I think we won."

This is when Petey burst out of the hole and almost sliced Wario's head off. Wario jumped back and crawled behind Link and Mario, even though Petey had already flown to the roof. Only Metaknight chose to climb up to face him. He flew up through the hole and saw Petey hovering two feet off of the ground. Metaknight flew forward, sword out, but Petey batted him away with a swat of his leaf. Metaknight spun out of control and Petey followed by slamming his butt down onto Metaknight and forcing him down the side of the building. Metaknight managed to slow his fall down by uncurling his wings, but he still hit the ground hard enough to knock him out.

Petey seemed satisfied, so he fit himself through his newly created hole to face the others. When Petey appeared, Mario called out, "Fire!"

Falco, Fox, and Krystal began shooting at Petey's wings. Petey flew forward, but everyone dove aside and he almost crashed into the wall. They continued shooting at his wings and dodging him until his wings were so damaged that he couldn't fly without feeling pain. When Petey dropped, Link and Prince Peasley ran at him once more. Petey stomped the ground twice, causing the entire floor to start shaking. Link lost his footing, but Prince Peasley continued to run. When Prince Peasley was close enough, Petey swiped him off his feet with a leaf and he flew into the wall. He collapsed and Petey walked towards him to give the final blow. Link had gotten to his feet and saw that Prince Peasley was going to get killed, so he ran towards them. He jumped into the air and sliced part of Petey's right leaf off. Petey howled in pain and, ignoring Prince Peasley long enough for Fox to drag him away, turned towards Link.

"Oh boy." sighed Link.

Link ran for the stairs while Petey chased him. Petey started making disgusting slurping noises while he ran, and when Link turned around to see what Petey was doing, Petey spat out the brown and white "graffiti" that they had seen earlier. Link got hit with a full blast and was thrown off of his feet and painfully down the stairs to the next floor.

Petey growled and stomped the ground hard enough to create a hole large enough to fit through and dropped to the next floor.

Everyone but Kirby, who stayed behind to take car of Prince Peasley, ran down to the next floor. Mario saw Link's sword lying next to the stairs, so he took it. They had trouble running down the steps without slipping because Petey's spit was covering the steps. When they reached the bottom step, Petey was standing over a blob of brown spit that was twitching and trying to crawl away. Just as Petey was about to swallow Link whole, Mario threw the sword at his head. The handle, instead of the point, hit Petey; this barely hurt him at all, but it angered him and got his attention.

Petey roared and, leaving Link, charged at the group. They tried running back up the stairs, but Petey jumped to the ceiling and knocked down a large chunk of the floor above with his head. When Cranky Kong, who was in the lead, made it up the stairs; he wasn't looking at the ground, or lack of, and was met with air. He stepped into the air and tilted down, where he could see Petey's open mouth. Cranky struggled to get back to safety, but he fell into Petey's mouth and, with a loud, bone-breaking crunch, was dead.

Diddy was the next up, but he saw Cranky fall and stopped right before the hole. He saw Cranky's death and was immediately filled with rage. He tried jumping down, but Waluigi pulled him back up.

"Let me go!" Diddy yelled.

"Hurry up," yelled Luigi from below. "we're getting crushed!"

"Cranky's dead." said Diddy.

Silence followed this statement. They were either in disbelief or shock.

Petey growled again, wondering why no more meals had come, and head butted the wall. The stairs collapsed and they had to run to avoid being crushed. Fox fired his gun at Petey as soon as he ran out to get Petey's attention. Petey growled and followed Fox, who ran to the other end of the room, while the others ran out of the stairs or jumped down the hole.

Diddy ran out after Petey with vengence in his eyes, but Donkey Kong held him back and said, "Cranky wouldn't want this." Diddy nodded, but dropped his head.

Link, who was still covered in saliva and had been forgotten, gave a groan. Krystal ran up to him and started washing off the spit.

"I..." Link groaned. "Can't move."

Petey gave a loud growl when Fox ran into the stairs at the other end of the room and began shooting from the stairs. He was angry and at a disadvantage. He jumped into the air and slammed into the ceiling above. Kirby had to swallow Prince Peasley and slowly carry him to the roof to avoid falling into the hole.

King Dedede pulled his hammer out and said, "Time to end this." He ran at Petey, lifted his hammer high in the air, but before he could strike, Petey swung his head around and accidently hit King Dedede with his head, sending him flying into the stairs. King Dedede dropped to the ground, groaned, "Good luck without me." and passed out.

Mario shook his head and picked up the sword he had thrown earlier. He twirled it in his hands and pointed it at Petey. Before he could attack, Falco and Wario ran past him and towards Petey at the same time. Petey was ready this time and he jumped at them. They had to dive aside to avoid him when he landed, creating a large crack.

Everyone on the floor attacked Petey at the same time. They jumped on him, shot him, electrified and burned him, until the floor gave way. The floor broke beneath their feet and Petey and several others crashed into the next floor.

Steven, one of the few that hadn't fallen, slapped his head and said, "I forgot to call out my Pokemon!"

Ness, who was beside him, punched Steven in the shoulder.

Petey landed on his back, almost crushing Diddy in the process. Petey groaned, but laid still as the others climbed off of him.

"He's dead, right?" asked Diddy.

"Never underestimate your enemies," said Mario. "I bet he's still alive.

Petey groaned again and they all jumped back. "Let's finish this." said Falco. He climbed onto Petey's stomach and shot two bullets into Petey's head. "Now he's dead."

"And now something bad happens." groaned Steven, who was listening from above.

Just then, Petey lifted a leaf and swatted Falco off of his stomach. Falco landed on his feet and growled. Petey climbed back to his feet, and just then they could hear dozens of footsteps coming from below.

"Soldiers," said Lucas. "A lot of soldiers."

"Run!" yelled Mario. They tried running to the stairs, but Petey blocked their way. He let out a roar so loud that they had to cover their ears. Petey swiped at them with its leaves. They dodged, but Petey didn't move after them.

"They'll never be able to jump up." said Krystal. "The soldiers are going to get them."

"Not if we can help it." whispered Steven. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Pokeball. He threw it into the air and it fell into the hole.

"Oh, brilliant." groaned Link sarcastically.

Steven rolled his eyes and told him to wait. The ball opened and Lucario, a blue and black humanoid fox, appeared in front of Petey. He closed his eyes and lifted his ears. Petey tilted his head in confusion and swiped at Lucario. To everyone's surprise: Lucario jumped high into the air, almost hitting its head on the ceiling, and landed beside Falco, who whistled.

Steven got on his hands and knees and yelled, "Lucario, get them up here, and hurry!"

Lucario nodded, grabbed Falco's arm, and leaped into the air. Lucario reached his height, just below the hole in the ceiling, and threw Falco by twirling around and pushing Falco upwards with both arms, out of the hole. Lucario landed on his feet and Falco landed on his head.

"Excellent! Just nine more to go!" said Steven.

"This isn't getting us anywhere." groaned Donkey Kong. He charged at Petey and punched him in the stomach. Petey fell back, but Donkey Kong punched him again in the head. Petey failed to counter attack, so Donkey Kong kicked him in the stomach. Petey fell backwards and groaned.

While he attacked, Lucario had grabbed Waluigi, Luigi, and Lucas and thrown them to the next floor. He had just grabbed Poo when the first soldier appeared in the stairway. The soldier looked at Petey and Donkey Kong, and then he turned towards Lucario and got blasted in his face. Fox had his gun out and was pointing it at the stairs.

Lucario jumped down and Wario stepped to his side. Lucario looked at his stomach and made a painful groan. Wario grunted and folded his arms.

Petey got back to his feet and hit Donkey Kong in the back with its leaf. Diddy gasped and ran towards Donkey Kong. Petey charged at Diddy, but Mario jumped in and kicked Petey in the head. Petey was angled off course by this and almost collided with the wall. Mario pulled Donkey Kong up, but dropped the sword in the process. Diddy picked up the sword, examined it closely, and glared at Petey.

"The stairs are free!" called Mario.

Lucario had managed to throw Wario through the hole. It landed and looked around for the nearest person and saw Fox, who had shot down three soldiers. Lucario ran to Fox, but he said, "Get the others."

Lucario saw the others battling Petey, so it ran under the hole and gave a howl. Steven called Lucario back in its Pokeball and congratulated it.

Petey growled and charged once more. They managed to dodge, but Diddy yelled out, "This is for Cranky!" and jumped after him. Petey turned around and saw Diddy in the air heading towards him. He opened his mouth and Diddy jumped right in.

"Diddy!" screamed Donkey Kong. He and Mario charged towards Petey, but when Petey closed his mouth, a red, sharp object ripped through the top of his head. It gave a gasp, staggered backwards, and collapsed, dead.

Donkey Kong and Mario, though shocked, continued running towards the deceased plant Petey's mouth opened wide and they stopped running, ready for another attack. But, instead, Diddy, covered in red blood, climbed out. Diddy spat out blood and gave a weak laugh.

"Are you okay?" asked Donkey Kong.

"Now I am," said Diddy. He grinned and continued, "But for once, I'd like a bath."

Donkey Kong grinned as well, but reality came back to them when a bullet shot over their heads. Fox was walking backwards, but he continued to fire at the soldiers that were now streaming through. They all ran up the staircase and met with Krystal, who was positioned next to the opening. Fox stayed behind while Mario, Diddy, and Donkey Kong ran up the next stairs. They stopped before the hole in the floor and saw Falco right beside the stairs. He helped them over the hole and they ran up the pile of rubble and onto the roof. There, waiting for them, was Steven.

"Finally," he said. "what took you so long? Did you kill him?"

"Now's not the time." grunted Donkey Kong.

"Why?" Steven asked.

"Soldiers are coming!" Mario said exasperated.

Steven pointed to the building right next to them. "That's where the others went. We'd better hurry up."

They jumped over the gap to the forty-story building below. They landed on their feet, but had to roll over to avoid injury. They ran through the open door and began the descent for forty floors. It took them several minutes before they reached the bottom, where they were met with all of the others. They had all gathered around the stairs and were waiting for the others. Link and Prince Peasley were still unconscious, but King Dedede had woken up and was sitting in a corner.

After ten minutes, they heard several footsteps running down the stairs. Fox appeared over the banister.

"We're all here." He reported. "We killed every soldiers and the only injury any of us got was a shot to the back of Falco's soldier. What happened to you?"

"We ran through the roof and carried Prince Peasley and Link down here." said Luigi.

"Where's Metaknight?" asked Fox. "I haven't seen him for a while."

"Outside." said Lucas with his eyes closed. "Unconscious but alive."

"What?" yelled King Dedede. "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"You never asked." said Lucas. Steven snickered, but King Dedede growled.

"I ought to pummel you." he said.

"Enough," said Mario. "We can't fight with each other. Not now."

King Dedede grunted and walked out of the door. He came back with Metaknight's unconscious body in his arms. He was breathing faintly, but he would live.

"When are we leaving?" asked Falco.

"Right now." answered Mario. "Donkey Kong, you carry Link. King Dedede, continue carrying Metaknight. Fox, can you help wake Prince Peasley? He seems like he could wake at any second."

"I'll try." he said.

"Then do so. Let's move out." Mario turned to Ness. "Where do we go?"

"Follow me." said Ness. He led them out of the building and, from the angle of the door, disappeared. Diddy looked back one last time, remembering everything that Cranky had done for them, and disappeared as well.


	20. Chapter 19

1. Mario  
2. Luigi  
3. Kirby  
4. King Dedede  
5. Metaknight  
6. Fox  
7. Falco  
8. Krystal  
9. Waluigi  
10. Link  
11. Wario  
12. Prince Peasley  
13. Diddy Kong  
14. Donkey Kong  
15. Steven  
16. Ness  
17. Lucas  
18. Poo

19. Yoshi

--

"What?"

"Petey Piranha is dead."

"What!"

"Petey-"

"I know; I know. Who killed him?"

"All I heard was that a human-sized fox, two monkeys, a Lucario, and Mario were next to him, but there must've been more."

"What!"

"A human-sized-"

"I heard!"

A pause. "Should I go now?"

"Yes. Please leave."

A door slammed.

"Petey's dead too? Mario killed him? He's becoming a large pain." Master Chief growled. Just as he had woken up, the soldier had come in and told him about Petey Piranha's death. "This is interesting..." He said. He paused, surprised at what he had said, and continued, letting his mouth do the talking instead of his brain. "King K. Rool and Petey weren't strong enough to take them down. Let's see if any of the others are."

--

Ness led them through the city and near the edge of the town. He knew this place well, as he was able to direct himself around the surrounding trees until they reached a large mountain. He navigated them up the side of the mountain until they reached a hole in the rock.

"There we are!" He grinned.

Mario patted him on the back and said, "Good job."

--

The moment they left the tunnel, they were greeted with a loud, ear-splitting noise, followed by a rush of wind that made Kirby float into the air and Donkey Kong had to reach up and catch him to prevent him from floating into the Earthbound realm again. Mario grinned as he, and everyone else, covered their ears.

"My second-favorite realm, next to my own," He yelled as several more similar noises came and left within a few seconds. "Though this place is noisy, it's fun to watch the races."

The tunnel's entrance was directly near an unnoticed section of a tunnel that F-Zero racers drove through. The noises that they heard earlier were the several F-Zero cars practicing for the race later that day. They could see the faint F-Zero cars defying gravity and racing up a perfectly vertical section of the track. They walked out of the tunnel and out into the open. As they walked out, there was a group of floating platforms leading to the ground to their left. The platforms themselves seemed to be floating due to the green flame jetting out from beneath. They sat on one of the platforms and looked at the city, where most of the buildings were over one hundred stories tall. The track that they were near extended all across the city, but they were close to the beginning so they could see the stands floating on a platform higher up than there platform was and the beginning stretch of track itself.

The F-Zero cars drove by once again and the drift they carried knocked several of them off of the platform. Thankfully, everyone who fell off fell onto the platform below. Kirby, however, floated down several platforms and almost fell off of the line, as the platform he landed on was the turning point and the platforms veered off into a different direction.

"It isn't safe here." said Fox as he stood back up. Everyone agreed, so they climbed to the ground. They were surprised when they reached the ground, because the entire city seemed to be filled with people. It looked like everyone was going in a different direction, and yet everyone managed to keep from running into each other. They tried traveling through the city, but had trouble keeping up with each other and almost got lost several times, just by crossing the street. They took refuge into a building to escape the crowds. As soon as they walked in, however, they were met by a flying box that said, "Coffee, soda, or hydrade?"

They blinked. "What's that?" asked Waluigi.

"Hydrade is fine," said Mario. "Twenty orders."

"Very well, sir," the box replied and floated into the building.

"Fox stepped back outside and looked directly up. He walked back inside and asked, "Jim's cafe?"

"Hydrade's delicious," said Mario. "Let's find a table."

Ten minutes later the box flew to their tables and set down a blue liquid drink that barely moved around in its glass. They took a sip and their mouths were forced into a smile and their eyes narrowed pleasantly. The drink was a mix of over ten different fruits with water and several lemon-flavored sodas all mixed together perfectly. There was an aftertaste of a sweet lemon that calmed everyone down and gave them happy thoughts.

"Was I right," asked Mario after he saw their reactions. "Or was I right?"

"You were definitely right." said Wario.

"Good. We'll finish our drinks and find Captain Falcon."

Almost an hour later, they came out of the cafe looking refreshed and relaxed. Nobody in the streets paid attention to them, as they were focused on their own business and rarely paid attention to anything else, even though Donkey Kong, carrying a paralyzed Link, Diddy Kong, King Dedede, carrying an unconscious Metaknight, Fox, Falco, and Krystal were traveling with them.

"Where do you think he'll be?" asked Fox.

"On the race track," said Mario. "Where else?"

"Captain Falcon, racer number 7, is starting his practice lap around Port City. Racing in his famous Falcon Flier, he's just got to the starting line."

They looked around for the deep male's voice, but saw someone nearby look up and they followed his gaze. They saw a large, fifty foot screen hanging high above on the roof of a fifty story building. Two announcers were in the foreground with a small square in the top right showing a picture of the Falcon Flier.

"You know, Jim," said the female. "His average lap is around two minutes, and he says he'll break his record of one and a half minutes even."

"This should be interesting-" said Jim, but before they could hear the rest Waluigi gasped.

"That's him!" He yelled.

"Who?" Wario asked, while the others nervously looked around to see if anyone was watching them.

"The captain from the army base we went to." Waluigi answered. "Remember Mario?"

Mario raised an eyebrow when Waluigi spoke to him, but he still looked closely at the man.

"Shouldn't we be going?" asked Krystal.

Mario nodded and they began walking towards the race track.

--

Captain Falcon had just finished his lap when they climbed up the platforms and onto the platform with the stands, filled with several cheering fans, on it. The finish line was directly below them, so they could jump down and see him as soon as he finished his lap.

Captain Falcon turned the final curve and sped across the finish line in one minute and twenty seconds, a new course record. His car screeched to a stop and he popped out of the hood. He landed a few feet from his car and looked at the audience. The announcers were yelling his name with excitement and he was filled with pride.

"Falcon!" The audience chanted. "Falcon!"

"Thank you!" He called out, failing to hear his own voice over the roar of the crowd.

"There they are!"

"What the-" Captain Falcon was interrupted by a red blast from above. Smoke floated off of the platform and a large group of twenty people and animals jumped from it. They landed beside Captain Falcon and had a coughing fit.

"Mario?" Captain Falcon asked when he saw the person closest to him.

Mario replied by giving him a piece of paper. Falcon read the paper: A wanted picture showing Mario's face with a block beneath describing him and a reward for bringing him to the police.

"What's this?" asked Captain Falcon.

"While you were driving, we saw fourteen different types of posters being put up. The cops putting them up found us and chased us here." explained Mario.

"There they are!"

Several cops began shooting at them from above and jumped down from the platform as well. Falcon forced them into his Falcon Flier and managed to drive away. Before he reached the tunnel, he forced the car to the right and it flew off of the tracks. It flew three hundred feet before tilting downwards, but Facon pressed a large green button and a green flame jetted from the bottom of the car and it evened out.

"This thing will get us to safety?" asked Steven.

"It's not a thing; it's my car," said Falcon, defensively. "But yes, it will."

"We'll take it to the tunnel. It won't be safe here any longer." said Mario.

"Alright," Falcon nodded in agreement. "But what's going on? Why are there so many of you?"

Mario began explaining Master Hand's mission to Falcon and several others who were hearing it for the first time.

"Rebellion Rep. Recallers?" Falcon scoffed when Mario finished. "That's the best you can come up with?"

"You come up with something better." Falco said defensively.

"Normally," Mario said. "I wouldn't bother answering that. However, times have changed. We need to join together in order to fight the armies. We need to get to Rebellion as fast as possible."

"So, we drive?" asked Falcon.

Mario nodded, but suddenly the car flipped upside down and began shaking violently. Falcon slammed on the brakes and everyone was thrown forward. The car stopped and three other cars sped by. They turned around and slowed to a stop right in front of them. Falcon flipped the car over and the police spoke.

"This is the police!" Came a man's voice. "Come out with your hands up!"

Steven reached forward and grabbed a megaphone. "If we do, we'll plummet to the ground!" He said and his voice was repeated much louder outside.

"Then land!" came the reply.

Falcon grabbed the megaphone and said, "Never!" He threw the car into gear and drove past the cops.

"Oh, brilliant," said Waluigi. "Piss off the cops!"

"Shut up. We're almost at the tunnel." said Falcon.

The police cars had began the chase and were now matching the Falcon Flier's speed. A green ball shot past the window and struck a lighted billboard and the billboard blacked out. Another ball was shot and it struck the Falcon Flier in the back engine. The car shuddered, blackened on the inside, and died. It tilted downwards and began plummeting to the ground.

Captain Falcon pressed the eject button, but nothing happened. Even though they were close to death, everyone was dead silent. Donkey Kong and Captain Falcon used their combined strength to push the hatch open. They jumped out of the car and watched as it crashed into a building and exploded.

Donkey Kong and Link landed on a roof a few feet underneath them. Fox also landed on the roof, but he rolled very close to the edge. Kirby and King Dedede used their expanded stomachs to float to the same building. Mario and Waluigi landed on the floor below the roof by crashing through the window. Prince Peasley grabbed Diddy Kong and directed them into the same building and they crashed through the floor below.

Ness and Lucas used their PSI powers to direct everyone else safely to the ground. The police landed and blocked their ways of escaping. Falco raised his gun, but Krystal gently moved his arm so that the gun was pointing at the ground. They all raised their arms in defeat and allowed the police to take them away.

--

"What the Hell was that?" asked King Dedede in rage.

"This is not good," said Donkey Kong. "Where is everyone?"

"Puyo!" said Kirby.

"No one can understand him." said King Dedede.

Kirby grumbled and they ignored him.

"We have to find the others." said Fox. "That's our only option."

"I saw some people crash into the floors below," said King Dedede. "The rest fell to the ground."

"Then we go below." said Fox. They walked to the connecting door and climbed down the stairs to the floor below. When they opened the door, the entire floor was silent and in a circle surrounding two people. Donkey Kong and Fox moved their way up to the front and saw a man with a red cross on his head kneeling over Mario, who was starting to wake up, and Waluigi, who had a bleeding cut on his forehead.

"Are they okay?" asked Fox.

"The red one seems fine. The purple must not have shielded his head when he crashed through the window." replied the medic.

"What happened?" groaned Mario as he sat up.

The medic pushed him back down and whispered, "its okay. You'll be alright. We just need to bring you to the hospital to get you cleaned up."

"But couldn't you just heal him right now?" asked a worker.

Fox heard this and became suspicious. He brought out his gun and ran up to the medic. He grabbed the medic and forced his head into the gun and said, "Heal him or you die."

The medic whispered, "So, you know what I am?"

"A soldier in disguise." answered Fox.

"Very well!" The medic yelled, dramatically, so that everyone could hear. "I will heal them!"

Less than a minute later, Waluigi and Mario were on their feet. Fox had threatened the medic to do the job right, and the medic obeyed him. Fox brought the soldier downstairs and he healed Diddy and Prince Peasley as well. While they were on the floor, Fox forced him to heal Metaknight and fix Link's paralysis as best as he could.

As soon as they checked the other floors, Fox let the medic go. They ran out of the building and into the ally. Fox saw Falco's gun on the ground, but nothing else. He picked up the gun and put it in his pocket.

"Nothing here!" yelled King Dedede in dismay.

"They must have been taken away," groaned Waluigi.

"Now we'll never find them." said Diddy.

"They'll have to catch up." said Mario.

"Excuse me?" asked Fox. "Two of my best friends are gone. Not to mention the three kids, Steven, and your brother."

"Wario and Captain Falcon as well," finished Mario. "I know; I know. But they have three Realm Rep's on their side, one of which knows this realm better than anyone. I'm sure they'll break free."

"And if they don't?" asked King Dedede.

"One of them has to be alive or we'd all be dead." said Metaknight. "When a Realm Rep dies, his or her realm dies with them. It disappears, never to be seen again."

"If Captain Falcon was dead, we'd all be dead." said Mario.

"So we need to save them!" King Dedede repeated.

"We need to finish the mission!" argued Mario. "They can catch up. Our only goal is to get through the other realms and bring the Realm Rep's with them. That's our mission. Their mission, for now, will be to escape and catch up with us. Okay?"

Fox nodded first and said, "They're tough. They can handle themselves."

"Alright," said King Dedede, finally giving in. "But now there are only ten of us when twelve started out. How will we explain our numbers."

"You're forgetting that we still have four more realms left." said Mario.

"Fourteen, then." said King Dedede.

--

They had been brought to the tallest building in the city, not far from where they were arrested. The building was three hundred stories tall and they were escorted by two dozen police men. They were brought to the very top floor by elevator.

"You were supposed to read us our rights!" argued Steven. "We're free to go."

"They abolished that in 2276," said Falcon. "But right now, I wish they hadn't."

The elevator doors opened and they entered a large room that had been split into two different designs. The left side was filled with pictures of Samurai Goroh and his car and had a glass case filled with Samurai Goroh action figures. The right side had been painted black and hats and jewels were hanging on the wall. There was a desk in the back of the room that sat on both sides and was painted to match each side. Two chairs were behind the desk and sitting in each was Samurai Goroh and Vaati.

"Goroh!" Falcon cheerfully called. "Long time, no see. You know, we were all worried when you disappeared two months ago and never-"

"Shut up!" interrupted Goroh. He unsheathed a sword and got out of his chair. At the same time, Vaati disappeared and reappeared in front of the desk.

"Ness, Captain Falcon, and Krystal." Vaati said. "Three people worth a lot of money. Why, I ask myself, are they worth so much? Care to answer?"

Everyone remained silent.

Vaati chuckled. "I thought as much," he turned to Goroh and said, "We each kill one."

"What?" yelled Steven. "You want to lose all of that money?" Captain Falcon glared at him.

"I didn't say anything about those three." Vaati snapped. "I meant you others."

"I get the little boy in the red hat." said Goroh.

"He's one of the ones worth money." said Vaati, calmly.

"I'm like a bull," said Goroh. "Red is my enemy.

Lucas and Poo stepped in front of Ness. "You don't harm him." said Poo.

"Au Contraire," said Goroh. "I will harm him."

He thrusts his sword right between Lucas and Poo. A gasp was heard and they turned around. The sword stopped right in front of Ness's face, but he gasped despite himself.

"And now you die." said Goroh. He pushed the sword forward and it struck Ness in the stomach.

"Why didn't you move?" Poo yelled.

"Didn't think that he'd actually do it." groaned Ness.

"Not deep enough." said Goroh and he ran forward. Vaati sighed and raised his hand. Lucas, Poo, and the others were forced against the wall and were forced to watch Goroh and Ness. Ness was lifted off of his feet and hit the wall. The sword continued to move, however, and was forced through Ness's body until the handle was touching Ness's stomach and the tip was well into the wall. The entire time, disgusting sounds echoed throughout the, otherwise, quiet room. Everyone, besides Vaati, that was watching was close to throwing up.

"That ought to do it." said Goroh. He turned around and said, "Your turn."

Vaati released everyone and they charged at Goroh. Goroh grabbed Lucas and threw him into Falcon, where they landed below Ness. Poo punched Goroh in the stomach, but he countered with a kick to the face. Poo was thrown into Steven and they both collapsed. Falco ran up to him and pointed Krystal's stolen gun at Goroh's head, but Vaati appeared right next to Falco and threw him against the wall. Krystal, Luigi, and Wario all reached Goroh at the same time, but Goroh grabbed Krystal's arm and, in one motion, knocked all three of them away.

The soldiers managed to grab everyone once again, but Captain Falcon and Lucas had removed the sword from Ness. Ness's blood had covered Lucas's face and he wiped it off while the soldiers grabbed them both and pulled them away from Ness. Ness was breathing heavily and struggling to keep the blood from seeping through the wound. Samurai Goroh walked back up to the Ness, got right in his face, and said, "You should have moved."


	21. Chapter 20

1. Mario  
2. Luigi  
3. Kirby  
4. King Dedede  
5. Metaknight  
6. Fox  
7. Falco  
8. Krystal  
9. Waluigi  
10. Link  
11. Wario  
12. Prince Peasley  
13. Diddy Kong  
14. Donkey Kong  
15. Steven  
16. Ness  
17. Lucas  
18. Poo  
19. Captain Falcon

20. Yoshi

Chapter 20:

Suddenly, Ness began glowing a bright green. He looked at the startled Goroh, grabbed his shoulders, and pinned him against the wall. Despite the size and strength difference, Goroh could not escape from Ness's grip. He struggled and pleaded with the soldiers and Vaati, but they just watched in amusement and fear.

"Captain Falcon, Krystal, Lucas, Poo, Luigi, Steven, Falco, and Wario," Ness said in a voice that was his own voice mixed with one voice which made his own voice sound much deeper, yet still have a creepy sound to it, especially considering it was coming out of a mere child's mouth. "Good luck, now leave before this building is brought to the ground."

"What's he talking about?" asked Wario.

"It's something that only people like Captain Falcon and I can do," answered Krystal. "Which is explode when we die."

"Explode!" Falco gasped.

They tried to leave the room, but the soldiers held in place despite what they had heard. They were ready to fire at them before Vaati suddenly said, "Wait! Leave them."

The soldiers looked confused and blinked at Vaati, allowing them to run out of the room. Vaati merely said, "This place isn't safe anymore. You had better run before you die."

"What about you and Goroh?" A soldier asked.

"I will be fine. Unless Goroh becomes smart, I am not sure about him. Now leave; the place will become rubble in less than ten minutes." Vaati said and, with that, disappeared.

Goroh shrieked, "Vaati; you traitor! Get back here and help me!"

Ness chuckled as the soldiers left the room, still in his strange, creepy voice. "You fool, you cannot escape. You will die, here, with me, you murderer."

Goroh yelled, screamed, thrashed around, trying to escape from Ness, but to no avail. He lashed out and punched, kicked, and bit Ness but he could feel no pain. Ness did not flinch or show any signs of pain. Goroh became aware of how useless this was, but this only made him try harder and make even more errors. Finally, after five minutes of useless flailing, Ness suddenly disappeared. Goroh stood up and danced with glee, but a split second later, a small green ball appeared where Ness disappeared. Goroh looked at the ball, confused, as it expanded. Goroh felt himself being pulled into the ball, so he forced himself to walk out of the room. He saw his sword, a few plants, and several of his photos get sucked into the orb. He suddenly realized that he was going the wrong way and turned around to see the orb large enough to cover the entire doorway, and he knew that it was the end.

--

Vaati had reappeared outside of the building and floated to the roof of the building beside it. He looked at his hand, which was carrying a red ball. He threw it into the air and watched it land on the ground, where a Jigglypuff appeared.

"Jiggly?" It said in confusion when it saw Vaati.

"I am sorry, small being." Vaati said in a drone voice. He grabbed the confused Jigglypuff with both hands and began squeezing. Though Jigglypuff was a balloon Pokemon, it soon began to feel the abnormally immense pressure that Vaati's hands were using to crush it. It soon succumbed to the pressure and was, as much as it struggled, painfully crushed to death. Vaati continued to squeeze his hands together, crushing its lifeless body, however, until he was sure it was dead.

"I wonder what happened to Goroh." He said as though nothing had happened. This was when the ball appeared and Vaati could sense the large energy that the ball was giving off. He saw the orb phase through the side of the building as it continued to grow in size, and began to feel the suction the orb was giving off. He floated to the next building and felt Goroh's death. He sighed and said, "I wonder what Master Chief is doing." and floated away.

--

The soldiers came out of the room screaming for everyone to evacuate the building. They tried the elevators and saw that all three were filled. Several of them waited impatiently for the elevator to rise again while the rest gave up and ran down the stairs, even though they had to run three hundred floors. The elevators appeared as the ball had reached the next room and the soldiers only barely managed to escape. The ones who ran down the stairs, unfortunately, were soon killed by falling debris or being sucked into the orb.

The eight members of the Rebellion Rep. Recallers had stolen the elevators after failing to convince the people on the top floor to evacuate the building. They made it to the bottom after several annoying and time-wasting stops. They ran out of the building before the obvious crowd of frantic people appeared and blocked their way. They looked up at the sky and could see the green orb gradually engulf the building. Even from several thousand feet away, they could hear the building become unstable due to the support beams becoming loose with nothing to hold them together at the top. They saw the first of the screaming evacuees begin to leave the building, so they ran far away.

They continued to run, though as suspicious as they seemed, for several blocks until the building was barely visible. Captain Falcon had led them to the tunnel, so they rested there. Lucas and Poo stepped into the open just to see their friend for one last time. They walked back into the entrance to the tunnel and began to walk into the Fire Emblem realm, but Wario stopped them.

"Why did Ness just explode?" He asked. "Before we move on, you need to explain right now."

"Seriously," said Falco. "That wasn't natural. So explain, Krystal."

"Very well," she sighed. "This will be short: As some of you know, us Rebellion Representatives have, within us, the very soul of our realm. Depending on how large the realm is, the larger the soul, and the larger the burden. The realms also weaken us somewhat, because they need to keep alive, so we are forced to feed nutrients from our body to nurture them. That's why, if we die, our realm dies. There are four sizes of realms: Large, Medium, Small, and Very Small. People like Captain Falcon and me have small realms, while people like Mario and Link have large realms. They carry the heaviest burdens, so they are easily the strongest of all of us.

"Well, when we die, our realms die. If we are killed, and only killed, not injured, by an object that penetrates our skin; our realm's energy is released from our bodies. This will cause the realm, as you saw to Ness, to temporarily take over our bodies, making us stronger than we ever could be and giving us some last words to say before our death. After the take-over, it will be five minutes before the realm eventually runs out of power, our body disappears to be with our realm forever, and then the realm is released into the world in a form of a black hole. This will suck in everything within reach until the realm stops expanding and implodes on itself, causing it to disappear forever."

"Each realm has a different color, apparently, depending on who it was." Captain Falcon added. "I guess Ness is green; I don't know why."

--

Almost thirty minutes earlier, Mario had led them through the city and to the same tunnel. They rested on the edge of the tunnel while waiting for the others to catch up. Ten minutes passed with no sign of anyone.

"They aren't coming." said King Dedede.

"Someone should stay behind in case they do." said Diddy Kong.

"And do what, exactly?" Asked Fox.

"Tell them that we're alive, or something," said Diddy.

"It would be useless." said Mario. "Let's go, we've waited long enough."

Only Fox could see the pain in his face as he said these words. Fox was feeling the same pain himself, and Waluigi had a frown on his face. They finally gave in and walked through the tunnel.

They passed the middle of the tunnel and all noise from the F-Zero realm vanished. Replaced by it was a pair of footsteps echoing close to the tunnel. Mario got as close as he could before looking out of the tunnel. He saw two guards patrolling the tunnel in a dark dungeon underground.

"I am here to see Eliwood!" He called out.

The guards spun around with their swords raised as soon as Mario spoke. When he said Eliwood, however, they glanced at each other and slightly lowered their swords.

"Who are you and where do you hail from?" asked one.

"I am Mario from the land of Mushroom Kingdoom." He answered. "I come seeking the help of lord Eliwood and his son, lord Roy. Can you please lead me to them?"

"I can, fair lord, for I have heard much of you from King Eliwood." said one and they both lowered their swords. "Do you bring allies?"

"I do; ten strong." answered Mario. "However, nine others were seperated from us on our journey and we believe that they are following us. If they come, please direct them to King Eliwood as well, for we will need their help on our quest."

"So I shall" said the guard. "My partner will escort you to his majesty's quarters where you will meet."

"I thank you." said Mario. He walked back inside the tunnel and called them out. They left the tunnel and followed the guard through the castle, admiring the sights as they went. The guard led them to a large door and bowed low as they thanked him and walked inside.

Inside the room was a long hallway covered in a red carpet. It led to three thrones at the end. Two were empty, but the throne in the middle was occupied by Eliwood, Marquess of Pherae.

"Ah, Mario, my old acquaintance, and sirs Metaknight, Peasley, Diddy, and, of course, Link! What brings you here?" He said in a cheerful voice.

"We need your help." said Mario.

"But of course," said Eliwood. "How do you need my services?"

Mario and Link began explaining Master Hand's mission to Eliwood. The others included information that they missed. Eliwood listened intently and did not interrupt once. When Mario finished, Eliwood sat in silence for a few minutes.

"The armies have already come." He informed them. "Those, soldiers, as you call them, have been attacking my kingdom for only a few days now, but the damage they've caused is great. I am sorry to say that we cannot stall them for long. I would like to stay and command my armies, but if going to the Rebellion realm is my duty, then I must depart."

"Well said!" said Link. "We shall leave soon!"

"Very well, my son will lead in my stead." said Eliwood.

"Actually, we would like Roy to come with us. We could use his help as well." said Mario.

"And leave my armies unmanned?" asked Eliwood. "Nay, I say, for Roy is one of the few I trust."

"We know him personally, sir," said Mario. "And we think, nay, know that he'd by a help."

Eliwood thought about this for several minutes before saying, "Very well. He shall come with us, if he feels he must. The problem of my armies, however, is still a matter."

"We shall solve that problem when the time arrives." said Link.

Eliwood nodded and called for a guard. "Bring my son, Roy, to this place as fast as possible." He commanded. The guard bowed in response and left the room.

--

"Master Chief, someone is at the door." said a soldier from the outside of Master Chief's room.

"Who is it?" asked Master Chief. "It couldn't be a soldier. They always barge in."

Vaati appeared in the middle of the room, floating two feet above the ground, and bowed slightly. "It is I, Vaati."

"What is it?" asked Master Chief, not in the mood for bad news.

"I've got bad news and, possibly, worse news." said Vaati, understanding Master Chief's lack of anticipation for bad news and purposely saying so.

"What is it?" asked Master Chief, irritably noticing what Vaati was doing.

"The first bad news is that Samurai Goroh has been killed." said Vaati.

"He was always reckless; I'm not surprised or sad." said Master Chief. "And the worse news?"

"The killer is the victim." said Vaati. "Both were victims while both were killers."

"I have no time or patience for riddles." Master Chief said in an annoyed tone.

"Goroh was trying to kill this person," Vaati held up Ness's wanted poster. "He succeeded, but when he did, I could sense large amounts of energy coming from the body. The boy held Goroh prisoner and they, and half of the building, blew up."

"So, you're saying that Ness is dead?" asked Master Chief.

"If Ness is this boy, then yes."

"Excellent. It looks like Goroh was useless after all," said Master Chief. "Return to your post!"

"Whatever you say." said Vaati and he disappeared.

Master Chief suddenly remembered something. "Come back!" He yelled.

Vaati reappeared, much to Master Chief's surprise, looking annoyed. "What?" He demanded.

"Who else was there?"

"A tall bird, a blue fox creature, Captain Falcon, Mario's brother, a teenager, a very fat man with a large nose, and two young boys around the age of Ness." He said.

"Not Mario or Link?" asked Master Chief.

"Only his brother." answered Vaati.

"I doubt that Mario would leave his brother behind," said Master Chief. "They must be... yes, this confirms it."

"Care to let me in?" asked Vaati.

"Ness was with Mario in the Earthbound realm." Master Chief continued, ignoring Vaati. "Luigi was with Mario in the Mushroom Kingdom realm, as was a blue bird and a blue fox. Prince Peasley in the Jungle Japes realm and two monkeys, a brown fox, and a Lucario in the Earthbound realm, along with Mario."

"Everything leads to Mario?" asked Vaati, sarcastically.

Once again, Master Chief ignored him. "What blue foxes are there?"

Vaati was holding a poster of all fourteen Realm Rep's, so he looked through them. "Krystal, according to the poster, is a blue fox."

"Krystal of the Star Fox realm?" said Master Chief. "Krystal, Prince Peasley, Mario, Link, Ness, Captain Falcon, Luigi, a fox, a blue bird, Luigi, all of the people you described, and two monkeys."

"One of these people is a monkey." said Vaati. "The name is Diddy Kong."

"Diddy Kong?" repeated Master Chief. "The other must be Donkey Kong, then." Master Chief walked to his chalkboard and began writing the names of several people, whispering to himself as he wrote.

"Mario and Luigi, Krystal and Link, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong. Ness, Captain Falcon, and Krystal in F-Zero, Prince Peasley in Jungle Japes, eleven people in the Mushroom Kingdom realm fighting Bowser; one of which is the pink puffball, Kirby. A fox, probably Fox himself, two monkeys, a Lucario, and Mario fighting Petey Piranha. Falco must be the blue bird if Fox and Krystal are traveling. A young teenager could be a Pokemon Trainer if he has a Lucario."

Master Chief erased all of this and began drawing a T-chart that had realms on one side and people on the other side. He put Mushroom Kingdom down first and numbered through eleven.

"The first report was of eleven people fighting Bowser. Mario, Luigi, Kirby, and Link were the most noticed. They also reported two foxes, most likely Krystal and Fox, and a bird, being Falco. A thin man with a pink nose, a green reptile, a large fat bird in a red robe, and a ball with a cape and a mask."

"Metaknight," interrupted Vaati, listening to every word intently. "He's wearing a cape and a mask, and he's a ball."

"You're probably right." said Master Chief, finally listening now that Vaati had something useful to say. "A fat bird in red robes is, more than likely now that we know about Kirby and Metaknight, King Dedede, also from the Kirby realm. The range of this group is through the Legend of Zelda, Mushroom Kingdom, Kirby, and Star Fox realms. The only green reptile I know of is a Yoshi, so I'll assume that that's the name. A tall, thin man, however, could be anyone."

He put a question mark in the final spot and wrong Jungle Japes in the next section. He put Prince Peasley's name down and, next to it, drew an arrow pointing to King K. Rool's name. He, then, wrote Earthbound in the next section.

"There were almost twenty people according to the soldiers. I'll assume that twelve of them are these people. Ness and his two friends, more than likely, were three of them. Diddy and Donkey Kong were two of them, and I'll assume that there's a Pokemon trainer with them. That makes eighteen, which is almost twenty."

Master Chief wrote F-Zero in the next section and turned to Vaati. "The large, fat man you mentioned. What was he wearing?"

"I believe a yellow shirt with purple overalls over it, white gloves, brown shoes, and a yellow hat with a W on it." said Vaati with little strain.

"Then it must be Wario, and if Wario was with them in F-Zero, then he must have been with them in Earthbound as well. The problem is, why wasn't he with them in Mushroom Kingdom and-" Master Chief paused and remembered something. He erased the question mark in both sections and wrote down "Waluigi"

"Pretty good list you have there," said Vaati. "But what good is it?"

Master Chief finished writing the nine names in the F-Zero section, drawing an arrow connecting Ness to Goroh's names, and setting the chalk down to admire his work before answering.

"Do you have a map of the realms." asked Master Chief.

"No, I do not." answered Vaati.

"I do," said Master Chief. "The map explains everything."

He walked over to his desk and got out a map of all fifteen realms. Vaati connected the two things together and understood.

"They're going counter-clockwise, aren't they?" asked Vaati, although he knew the answer.

"Exactly; we'll create a road block at Kid Icarus and F-Zero. They'll have nowhere to run. I'll tell them to kill, not capture."

Suddenly a soldier burst through the door. "Sir, the Earthbound realm had disappeared!"

Silence followed for several moments. "Come again?"

"The tunnels are just... gone. One moment they were there; the next, they weren't."

"How would you know this?" asked Master Chief.

"I was patrolling the tunnel, like you ordered, and it just vanished."

"When, man, when?"

"Around half an hour ago." said the soldier.

"Around the time the boy died." said Vaati.

"Ness, the Realm Representative of Earthbound died, so his realm vanished?" said Master Chief. "You may leave, soldier."

The soldier left, but Vaati stayed behind, he was interested. "So, if we had killed Captain Falcon, would F-Zero have disappeared?"

"How would you assume that?" asked Master Chief.

"Ness is relative to Earthbound, apparently, so Captain Falcon must be relative to F-Zero."

"Well, you're correct. Each of those people on the posters is in control of their home, so to speak. If they die, one more realm is gone, apparently."

"Fourteen posters and fifteen realms?" noted Vaati. "Is one of these people in control of two?"

"No," sighed Master Chief, surprised at what he'd say next. "I am the fifteenth."


	22. Chapter 21

1. Mario  
2. Luigi  
3. Kirby  
4. King Dedede  
5. Metaknight  
6. Fox  
7. Falco  
8. Krystal  
9. Waluigi  
10. Link  
11. Wario  
12. Prince Peasley  
13. Diddy Kong  
14. Donkey Kong  
15. Steven  
16. Lucas  
17. Poo  
18. Captain Falcon

19. Yoshi

--

Chapter 21:

--

Matthew continued to stare at the place where the bulborbs had disappeared. He was filled with both fear and curiosity. The remaining seven soldiers were checking the ship for survivors. Yoshi, who could still barely move and had fallen out of the ship before the smaller bulborb had come, was sitting on a rock and thinking about his situation.

"Only three survivors; one of which has an injured leg." Reported a soldier.

"Three is better than nothing," Matthew sighed. "We should leave as soon as we can. I have no idea where the tunnel is, so we search quickly. The less time we spend here, the better."

"Wouldn't it be better if we went in the morning?" asked a soldier. "I heard that this place has very tough creatures, much tougher than the creatures in the day, the ones that are nocturnal."

"We'll survive," said Matthew. "If there's anything that tells us that we should still move, it's that we're still alive."

"Another group of twelve," Yoshi noted. "I don't think you've noticed, but I can barely move."

"True," said Matthew. "Two carry my friend- say, what is your name? It's amazing how we've been through all of this and I still don't know it."

"Yoshi." Said Yoshi, not seeing the hope in lying. "My name is Yoshi."

"Yoshi." repeated Matthew. "It sounds very familiar."

"Sir," a soldier said. "If we are going, we should go."

Matthew nodded. "Right men, follow me. I have no clue where I'm going, but I'm in charge. If you have a problem with it, then go your own way."

Nobody said a word, so Matthew brought out his gun. Two people helped Yoshi to his feet and they left the wreckage of the ship. They traveled several minutes before they caught sight of what creatures were out: Two large bulborbs, much larger than the ones they had seen earlier and covered in black and red spots, were feasting on the flesh of a small, pink bug.

"Disgusting," One soldier commented.

"This place is just like a jungle." noted Matthew. "Keep moving and keep quiet."

They moved past the bulborbs, but were soon met with a large bird. The bird had popped right out of the ground right in front of them; its bird head on a blue, snake-like body, and began snapping at them. They scrambled out of the way and dropped the injured soldier in the process. The bird grabbed the soldier in its beak and disappeared into the ground; the soldier's terrified screams continued to echo before the hole magically closed up.

"You idiots!" Matthew scolded the two soldiers that had been assigned to carry the soldier. He punched one in the face and slapped the other with his gun. The others could do nothing but watch the soldiers' humiliation and listen to the soldier's death play in their heads again and again. "You wasted a perfectly good man. Your punishment is now your assignment: Distraction. If we come across another of those monsters, you two will distract it while we escape. If you don't, then I'll kill you where you stand."

The soldiers spat at the ground and Matthew turned to the others. "Alright men," he said. "It looks like we're going to have to be more careful than we thought. Let's move out!"

They continued their aimless journey, being careful to avoid the bird's nest. They had barely poved past the nest, however, before another creature dug its way out of the ground. This creature was a small, purple bug that was half their height. It had sharp pincers that were half of its body. It scuttles around like a worm and got right next to them. They froze, confused, when four others dug their way out of the ground and surrounded them.

"Get your arms ready, men." Commanded Matthew.

"We don't have any arms, sir." said a soldier.

"What?"

"The large beast ate most of our weapons and the rest had broken in the crash. We could only find a small gun and a few knives."

The sheargrubs had gotten within a few inches and one jumped into the air. The soldiers scrambled out of the way before it landed. It missed them all, but Yoshi was dropped in the scramble. He managed to crawl out of sight of the sheargrubs and saw one of the soldiers attack a sheargrub. He jumped onto it and stabbed it in the head with a knife. It shook around and threw him off. He landed on his feet, but lost his balance and fell over. Another sheargrub nearby jumped into the air and its pincer went through the stomach and face of the soldier, killing him instantly. The soldiers grew angrier and all nine of them took out knives and viciously murdered the sheargrubs before they could kill any more men. Yoshi called out and two soldiers picked him up. They carried him with the group as they walked away. They paused a while away to catch their breath.

"You could not blame that on us!" a soldier yelled.

"We can't keep losing men like this." Matthew growled.

"Yoshi, 'eh?" A soldier walked up to Yoshi, who had been set down out of earshot from the others. "Familiar name, 'eh?"

"Yeah," said Yoshi, barely listening. "Familiar, sure."

"The name's Chuckie. You might know my brother, Beans." He said. Yoshi gasped. "We followed you, even though you told us not to. We spotted a soldier looking for his friend, so we knocked him out and I took his clothes. I saw the ship leaving, so I got in. My brother is looking for a way out as we speak. Or, he might have found a way out. I'm not sure, but I'll see him soon if you take me to him."

"Um..." Yoshi paused, not wanting to tell him that Chuckie's brother wouldn't be leaving. He was glad that he had an ally, but depressed at the possibility that Beans might be trapped. "Yeah, sure, I'll help you find him as soon as we find the tunnel. Is that okay?"

"It's perfect! Thank you! I just hope that my brother got out." Chuckie smiled brightly and innocently, which gave Yoshi a pang of horrible guilt. He dropped his gaze and, when Matthew called for them, Chuckie helped him to the group where another soldier helped carry him.

They all left the clearing quickly, but were soon met with another obstacle. One soldier walked too far away from the group and stepped in between a pair of eyes sticking out of the ground, brushing them aside thinking that they were plants. As soon as he pushed them aside, an Emperor Bulblax erupted from the ground, mouth first, swallowing the surprised soldier whole. The Emperor Bulblax lipped its lips and slowly turned around, seeing the other soldiers. It opened its mouth in, what the soldiers thought was, surprise, and a large tongue shot out. The tongue was short by only a few inches, but the soldiers felt the large amount of saliva fly into their faces. They stepped backwards and the Bulblax matched them step-for-step. It paused and opened its mouth again and the soldiers took the moment to sprint away.

Yoshi was dropped in the scramble and he saw the tongue shoot out directly over him. He felt saliva drip from the tongue and onto his face. It felt warm and disgusting. Yoshi managed to crawl out of reach of the tongue and saw the Bulblax walk away. He growled when he saw no sign of the soldiers and began crawling in a random direction.

--

The soldiers had stopped over one hundred yards away from the Bublax, miraculously avoiding any creatures. While they rested, it was discovered that Yoshi had been dropped in the scramble. Matthew fumed at the soldiers responsible while Chuckie became depressed. He stood up and walked over to Matthew.

"Let me find him." He said.

"Excuse me?" Matthew said, not hearing him in his tirade.

"Let me find him." Chuckie repeated.

"Its suicide," said Matthew. "Yoshi's gone. The chances of finding him are slim to none."

"I don't care," said Chuckie. "I want to look for him."

"If you die, you can't hold me responsible." Matthew said.

"Thank you, sir. When I'll find him, I'll find you." said Chuckie.

"You're awfully optimistic, aren't you?" Asked Matthew.

Chuckie didn't answer. Instead, he grabbed a bloody knife from one of the "distraction" soldiers, pulled out his own knife, nodded at everyone, and disappeared into the trees. The soldier who had his knife stolen felt fear begin to rise as he imagined himself being cornered weaponless. He grabbed a knife from another soldier, who began feeling the same fear, and sheathed it. Matthew sighed as he saw this.

"Let's move out!" He said. He grabbed his gun, the only gun, and lead his six soldiers in the opposite direction.

--

Yoshi managed to crawl within yards of the same clearing that Chuckie and Matthew had stopped at. However, he was twenty minutes too late and everyone had long gone. He groaned and sat on a stump, resting his body. He decided that he could wait out the paralysis if he didn't encounter and creatures. He spent another ten minutes waiting and watching the sun begin to rise, showing only its tip over the trees, leaving a purple hue in the sky. Yoshi could only see a few feet ahead of him, this being a faint silhouette. He sighed and laid down on the stump, playing with his wounds out of sheer boredom. After another twenty minutes, he could finally see more than a few feet ahead and trusted his instincts enough to not kill him.

--

Matthew's group had left the clearing and traveled for ten minutes, keeping a tight and unbreakable formation from any surprise attackers. Unfortunately, it was broken by one of the strangest monsters they encountered: A Careening Dridribug. They saw the silhouette of the creature floating above the air, but they only actually saw it because of the bright colored balloons that reflected the light. They thought that it was harmless due to it floating on balloons, but they heard a strange noise coming from it. Something dropped to the ground beside them and they heard the noise again. Matthew smelt something burning and felt a small heat being released from the object.

"Get away!" He yelled. They began running from the object, but heard a similar object being dropped down a small bit away. They heard a final click and dove behind whatever they could find. Behind them came a loud, large explosion. Heat soared through the air in a circular pattern, causing the wind to become visible due to the intense heat. The radius of the bomb was small, but it was enough to trigger the second bomb, causing this one to become set off even faster. It blew up too soon for the one unlucky soldier that had hid right next to it. The bomb rock blew up and the heat completely melted the man's face off. He was killed immediately.

"Regroup and set out!" Matthew called out as another bomb rock was dropped. He managed to grab one soldier's soldier and lead him away from the bomb rock. After a few minutes of blind running, they managed to meet up with three of the other soldiers. They searched for the final soldier, but never found him again. They decided to leave him and continued they journey.

--

Chuckie had been searching for Yoshi for nearly an hour with no results. He had stopped next to a rock on a beach. He watched the waves for a few minutes while gaining his breath back. He heard footsteps behind him and pulled out his weapons. He heard a voice calling out, "Olimar! Olimar!" He ducked behind the rock and glanced out from behind it.

He saw a young man in a spacesuit running towards him carrying a blue bundle. Chuckie was confused and continued hiding as the person ran passed him and disappeared. He decided that this was his only option and began following the man.

The man turned around and saw Chuckie following him. He stopped and waited for Chuckie to catch up.

"Hello soldier," said the man. "I wouldn't be following me if I were you."

"Soldier?" Chuckie said, confused. "I'm not a soldier-" He looked down and realized that he was still wearing his camouflage gear. He chuckled and said, "Do not worry; I am not an actual soldier. My name is Chuckie McBeans, and I am from the Beanbean Kingdom. It is a far way away from this place and I am trying to get back. Unfortunately, I am lost. Can you tell me where to go?"

"Hi, I'm Louie," said the man. "I'll help you as much as I can, but I'm not expert. My best friend, Olimar, knows much more about this place than I do. You can follow me there, but you'll have to change your clothes first."

Chuckie sighed and, seeing no option, stripped his clothes. He stepped into the trees and fixed a loincloth out of the leaves and stepped out, felling humiliated. Louie nodded and, still carrying the bundle, lead Chuckie through the beach.

--

Matthew had led his men through the realm and he could see the tunnel only a few yards away. His men whooped and hollered with joy and he, himself, felt pride surging within him. He decided to wait for a few minutes to rest and allow Chuckie and Yoshi to catch up, if they were still alive. After several minutes of silence, he sighed and his men walked through the tunnel. Matthew turned around and looked at the realm one last time before he walked through the tunnel.

When he entered the Final Destination realm, he saw his men at the tunnel entrance waiting for him. "Thank you, men," he said. "You have done well. We shall rest at the nearest base and set out for Master Chief's tower this afternoon. There, you'll get a decent meal and I'll report what happened to him. Good night, men."

His men split up and walked away while Matthew stood alone, feeling a small pang of guilt that was beginning to grow with each passing second, unknown to him.

--

Yoshi had reached the beach after searching for another thirty minutes. He felt water beneath his feet and stopped walking, looked down, and realized that he was standing in the ocean. He stepped out and tripped over a rock, falling on his butt. He groaned and stared at the rising sun, not realizing that he was healing quite fast until his brain began functioning. He stood up quickly and moved his feet. He played around, stepping large distances to see how far he could step, and tried running. He tripped once again and felt something step over him. His face was forced into the sand and he groaned, hearing a large object land on the ground beside him. He turned his face and saw two people, one on the ground and one standing over him, and groaned again. The person that had fallen apologized and picked Yoshi up. The light hit both of their faces and they saw each other clearly.

"Yoshi!" Chuckie shouted.

"Chuckie!" Yoshi groaned, still feeling the pain in his back.

"I'm sorry for tripping over you," he said. "Are you okay?"

"I'm better now that I'm not alone," said Yoshi. "Who is he?"

"My name is Louie," said Louie. "I found your friend here a while ago and am leading him to our base. Care to join us?"

"You won't have to carry me," said Yoshi. "But I can't walk upright yet. Can I lean on your shoulder or someth-" Yoshi noticed the bundle Louie was carrying. "What is that?"

Louie looked down at the creature and said, "I don't know. His back is much burnt and he's unconscious; barely breathing. I have to heal him if there's still hope. I feel that I have to."

"Let's hurry, then." said Yoshi. He leaned on Chuckie and, together, the three of them walked along the beach. After almost twenty minutes, they reached a small cave. Louie called out for help and another man in a spacesuit, this one shorter and had a football-shaped head, came out of the cave.

"What's wrong, Louie?" He asked.

"We have company," said Louie. "These two are friends of mine. I also found this poor creature floating in the ocean. It's still alive, but barely, so I need to get to my medicane."

"Very well, but let me talk with these two first." said the man.

"Alright, Olimar." Louie walked into the cave and disappeared.

"Who are you," asked Olimar.

"I am Chuckie and this is my friend, Yoshi." said Charlie. "We came from the Beanbean Kingdom, but our story is long and my friend is injured."

"To correct you, I am actually from the Mushroom Kingdom. I traveled to the Beanbean Kingdom with my friends, but I was separated from them." Yoshi said.

"You did?" Both Olimar and Chuckie asked in surprise.

Yoshi nodded and Olimar became confused. "How did you find the tunnels?" He asked.

"Wait... Captain Olimar?" Yoshi remembered reading the names of all of the Realm Reps. "You're a Realm Rep, right?"

"If you've shortened the last word of the name, yes. I am Captain Olimar, Realm Representative of the Pikmin realm."

"To answer your question, I traveled with a few other Realm Reps: Mario, Link, Metaknight, and Krystal. They helped me find the tunnels." said Yoshi.

"Why are you all gathering?" Olimar asked.

"Master Hand gave us a mission. I remember it vaguely, but I'm in pain. Can I please rest, and then I'll tell you." said Yoshi.

"I believe that we can wait, so yes, we can help you." He said.

Yoshi nodded and all three of them walked into the cave.


	23. Chapter 22

1. Mario

2. Luigi

3. Kirby

4. King Dedede

5. Metaknight

6. Fox

7. Falco

8. Krystal

9. Waluigi

10. Link

11. Wario

12. Prince Peasley

13. Diddy Kong

14. Donkey Kong

15. Steven

16. Lucas

17. Poo

18. Captain Falcon

19. Yoshi

20. Chuckie McBeans

21. Captain Olimar

22. Louie

--

Chapter 22:

--

"You?" Vaati asked. "You are one of them?

Master Chief nodded. "I had no idea until Master Hand, one of those realm controllers, told me."

"Master Hand," Vaati repeated. "Any relation to Crazy Hand, the giant hand that ordered you to capture us?"

Master Chief saw that Vaati still held a grudge for being humiliated a few months ago. Master Chief set this aside and nodded. "Sonic killed him, taking over for a bit and setting you free, and I killed Sonic, making me leader and making you Supreme Generals-"

"A dumb title, I might add," Vaati commented.

Master Chief ignored him and continued. "I don't even want to be the realm... representative I believe they called us; for this realm."

Vaati thought a moment and asked, "Hypothetically, if I killed you right now-" He curled his fingers into a fist and lit his fist on a purple fire. "-which I could, then you'd explode and this realm would disappear?"

"Apparently so," Master Chief answered. "Although I have no idea why. I didn't even know about this place until a few months ago. Six months ago something sent me a message telling me to meet in Rebellion. This voice mentioned several other people. It's odd, though, because I can remember the exact words as clearly as if you said them two seconds ago."

He paused and recited: "'Mario, Link, Metaknight, Krystal, Eliwood, Diddy Kong, Prince Peasley, Mewtwo, Ness, Captain Olimar, Pit, Samus, Captain Falcon, Master Chief. Please gather in Rebellion. There's something you must know.'"

Vaati looked confused, but still retained his unemotional nature. "Link? Why would he be mentioned?"

"It doesn't really matter," Master Chief shook his head. "Honestly, I wish I had never gotten that message. Otherwise I wouldn't be stuck in this office. I'd be frozen solid, waiting for an actual mission. Commanding armies to destroy the world instead of doing it myself is dull, but it is the only possible way I could accomplish my mission."

"Mission? Destroying this place is a mission?" Vaati looked impressed. "I admire that. Killing thousands of people and destroying thousands of lives is a mere mission that needs to be completed to you."

"You don't understand why I came here." Master Chief said, both annoyed and flattered. "It wasn't my choice. I, honestly, hate this entire world. I would much rather battle extraterrestrials to the death than cooped up in this place. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to leave this building unless something strange happens. They said that they didn't want to risk losing their leader again. I'd say they're scared of what I could do to them. Either way, I'm stuck here."

"Interesting," Vaati said, clearly not paying attention to Master Chief's story. "So you do not know why you are here? It seems that you don't even belong here in the first place."

"Were you even paying attention?" Master Chief growled. "I already said that I had no choice in the matter. It doesn't even matter anymore. I'm here until my mission is over, and I plan on carrying out my mission."

"Whatever you say, your majesty." Vaati bowed sarcastically. "So what is your plan for Link and the others?"

Master Chief opened his mouth, paused, rolled his eyes to the ceiling in thought and closed his mouth again. Vaati waited patiently for his answer, which took three minutes of thinking. He opened his mouth again and said, "I'll need someone reliable to follow them to Rebellion's tunnel. I don't know where it is, specifically. I only know that it is in the Legend of Zelda realm."

"Who did you have in mind?"

Master Chief pressed a button on his desk and spoke into a speaker. "Get me the Wolf Squad."

--

Wolf landed his Wolfen in a field close to Master Chief's tower. Leon, Panther, and Shadow the Hedgehog landed theirs close to his, in a diamond formation. They all got out of their Wolfens and walked straight into the tower. Panther gave a low growl at everyone they passed and Leon snickered whenever they showed fear. Shadow had closed his eyes when they stepped into the building, not speaking and having his eyebrows lowered in a deep concentration. Wolf himself walked proudly ahead of the others, his face set in a snarl that showed his back sharp teeth.

They reached the top level quickly and opened the doors to Master Chief's room. There, Vaati and Master Chief were quietly waiting for their arrival.

Wolf grinned. "'Sup, Vaati?"

Vaati sighed and shook his head.

Wolf frowned and turned to Master Chief. "So, why did you call us?"

"I have a mission for you. This mission involves stealth and speed and, if needed, strength." Master Chief answered. "Can you handle it?"

"Our three specialties." Wolf said confidently. "Of course we can handle it."

"Good," Master Chief smiled. "You will team up with Vaati. Here is a map of all fifteen realms of Nintendo World, where we currently live in. You can ride your Wolfens, I believe they're called, until you reach the Kid Icarus tunnel. Then, you must abandon your Wolfens, travel through the Kid Icarus tunnel, and must capture at least one of these thirteen targets-" Master Chief handed the wanted posters to Wolf. "-All you must do is capture one of them. Bring them here alive. If you do, you will be rewarded two million dollars. If you fail to capture them during your first attempt, follow them. Follow them until they reach the Rebellion tunnel. If they manage to make it, report its location straight to me. If you do that, you will still get your two million dollars."

"Follow these guys, capture one or follow them until Rebellion tunnel. Can do." Wolf said while scanning the papers. He saw Krystal's picture, grinned, and handed it to Panther, who stared at it in disbelief. He folded the remaining papers up and put them in his pocket. He looked at the map, which was a copy of the map of Nintendo World that Master Chief had hidden in his desk. He pointed out where they needed to go, nodded, and folded the map. He looked at Vaati and said, "You're coming with us?"

Vaati regretfully nodded and Wolf sighed. "Can you fight?" He asked.

"Can you?" Vaati countered.

Wolf snarled and pointed at Master Chief. "Have our money ready." He walked out of the room and the others followed. Vaati sighed, looked at Master Chief with grief, and teleported out of the room as well.

Master Chief smirked, thinking about how they wouldn't get along and hoped that Vaati would be killed. He wondered if they would actually complete the mission.

"Well," he said. "If they fail, I'm sure that our other roadblocks, Ridley and the Titan Dweevil, will fix their mistake. If not, then I'll be dealing with a much stronger threat than I had anticipated."

A solder ran through the door. Master Chief was surprised, as this had not happened in a while. "What is it?" He growled.

"We have launched the attack on the Fire Emblem realm." The soldier reported. "Soon the realm will fall!"

"I wouldn't count on it." said Master Chief. "All we need to do is- Matthew?" He paused, suddenly recognizing the soldier's voice.

"That's right, sir." Matthew smiled. "I am here to report what happened in the Jungle Japes realm."

"Well, my friend, please report. I was worried." Master Chief sat down and sat patiently.

"Four days ago, I was sent on the Destroyer to the Star Fox realm. As you have already heard, we managed to destroy all three tunnels, successfully cutting off the realm from the others. After doing this, we traveled to this realm for a day to rest the ship. I could not report to you. We then traveled to the Jungle Japes realm later that day and destroyed the remaining three tunnels. There, we buried King K. Rool. I met someone whom I had not seen before, named Yoshi-"

"What?" Master Chief stood up in shock. "Yoshi? You said Yoshi? This can not be."

"Sir?" Matthew looked worried. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, yes, I am fine. I'm just confused." Master Chief waved at him absentmindedly. "Please continue."

Matthew still looked worried, but he continued. "He had been severely hurt. He did not say how, but he had several deep burns on him. We helped heal him, but he was still slightly paralyzed, so I was worried. We traveled to the Final Destination realm, but something happened along the way that caused the ship to crash. It somehow activated its hyperspace engines and traveled to the Pikmin realm, where we crashed. The ship was lost.

"It was at night, so there were several dangerous creatures lurking around, as I remembered you had said once before. After battling several creatures, I was left with only four of my men. Yoshi was lost in a scramble and another soldier left to look for him. I fear the worst."

"Yoshi is dead, then, but isn't with the other people in the F-Zero realm. He must have split up from them. Why?"

"Sir?" Matthew spoke up.

"What is it?" Master Chief said, absentmindedly.

"Are you feeling well?" He asked.

"Yes, yes. I'm fine. Thank you the report. I am glad to see you okay, my friend. Please, get some well deserved rest." Master Chief smiled and said, though still wasn't truly paying attention to him.

Matthew nodded, suspicious, and left the room. Master Chief sat down and rubbed his temple. The only good things that came out of this was that he absolutely knew that the Star Fox, Jungle Japes, and Earthbound realms were officially destroyed; cut off from the others. However, this meant that only one fifth of his mission was complete. The other twelve realms, despite his control, could still rebel and overthrow his troops. The Destroyer was gone, and this was the only way to truly destroy the tunnels.

Matthew had said that there would be an attack on the Fire Emblem realm. Mario and his friends, if they had not already passed, would have to face the attack. If any of them would die, then his job would become a lot easier. However, if they weren't killed in the attack, then they would be faced with three of the Supreme Generals.

"Mario and his friends have no chance in the world." Master Chief said confidently.

--

The doors opened suddenly, startling everyone. The room was dark, so the light that flooded in blinded everyone for a brief moment. Mario shielded his eyes with his arm, but he could still barely see. Nine figures stepped into the room before the door closed once more. Mario recognized one figure immediately.

"Luigi!" He called.

Fox recognized two figures and grinned. He began walking towards them to talk, but noticed something odd: Nine people had been separated from them before, and only eight had come back. One of the figures was a guard that immediately walked to Eliwood. While Falco and Krystal welcomed him, he counted the ones who had come back.

"Where's Ness?" He asked.

The Realm Representatives conversed after everything had been explained. After ten minutes, they stood up and Mario said, "There's no turning back."

"Excuse me?" Steven asked, confused.

"The Earthbound realm is gone. We can't go back without going through the Final Destination realm. I just hope that Yoshi wasn't in Earthbound in the last house." Mario explained. "The only way to go is forward, now."

"When will we be departing?" asked Eliwood.

"Who are you?" Luigi pointed at Eliwood.

"I," declared Eliwood. "Am Eliwood, Marquess of Pherae. I am also one of the fifteen chosen Representatives of Nintendo World; Fire Emblem's representative. You, currently, are standing in my land."

"I see," Luigi said. "so now we move to the Kid Icarus realm?"

"That's right." said Mario. "Now that we're all together."

"Not all of us, I'm afraid." said Eliwood, but as he spoke, his son, the red-headed Roy, came through the door, slightly out of breath.

"Why did you send for me, father?" asked Roy. He saw everyone looking at him and also asked, "Who are these strangers?"

"These, my son, are several brave warriors sent for us. We shall follow them to a faraway place where we will be safe."

"But what of your people?" Roy protested. "You are their king; their leader! They will not-"

"They will run well even without my leadership." Eliwood assured him. "I will send for our friend, Hector, to take my place."

"But, father-" Roy continued, but Eliwood interrupted him once more.

"I have not explained everything to you, my son, but this much I shall tell: If I stay here and am slain in battle, our kingdom will never seen the sun again."

Roy sighed and admitted defeat. Mario stepped forward and asked, "Are we ready to go?"

Eliwood turned to the guard and said, "Guard, send word for Hector. Tell him to take my place in command until I return."

"Yes, your majesty." The guard bowed and left.

"And now we rest before we depart. I am sure you would like a meal." said Eliwood. "They agreed, not wanting to disappoint their host and feeling famished. They ate a large, hot meal with several desserts, even though it wasn't even noon, which took over an hour for everyone to finish. When they finished, Eliwood asked them if they had any weapons. Most shook their heads, so he led them to a room deep in the castle. He opened the door and everyone saw the large supply of various weapons hanging on the walls and lying on top of shelves.

"Take your pick. There are plenty for a group as small as us." said Eliwood.

"You call twenty people small?" Steven asked as he grabbed a sword and jabbed it in the air.

"Yes, I do." answered Eliwood, oblivious to the sarcasm.

Steven sighed and sheathed his sword. Link began to miss the Master Sword as he pocketed a new sword of a similar size. Link also grabbed a large amount of arrows and put them in his empty quiver next to his bow. King Dedede grabbed the largest axe and swung it with ease. He grabbed another axe, equally as large, and set both in their scabbards on his back. Captain Falcon, Fox, Falco, Krystal, and Waluigi all got a one-handed sword, while the Star Foxers kept their own guns as well.

Prince Peasley, Kirby, and Metaknight didn't take any weapons, as their own suited them fine. Diddy Kong kissed his peanut popgun as he grabbed another dagger to accompany the sword he had gotten from Link. After pulling it from Petey's dead body, he had only told Mario and Donkey Kong about it. Donkey Kong grabbed a dual-handed sword and swung it easily in one hand. He sheathed it and put it behind his back. He grabbed a one-handed sword and put it beside his thigh. Wario got a dual-handed sword, but had to swing it with both hands, despite his strength, so he could only get this weapon.

Lucas and Poo couldn't carry any swords, so they each got two daggers. Luigi got a one handed sword and had a flashback to when he shot an arrow in the Mushroom Kingdom and had missed by several yards. He grimly nodded and took a bow and a quiver with thirty arrows. Mario got two one-handed swords and sheathed them in an X-pattern behind his back. He got a dagger and put it on his right thigh. Steven also got a dagger and had been twirling it around.

"Now, to clothe you for battle!" Eliwood said when they had finished.

Steven frowned at his favorite shirt and sighed. Each of the humans got a shield and a metal armored mail under their clothes. Donkey Kong, King Dedede, Kirby, and Diddy, due to their size, did not get any clothes and only the former two could carry a shield. Fox, Falco, Krystal, and Prince Peasley all put on a shield, but chose not to wear any armor.

"I feel ridiculous." Steven groaned. He looked at Diddy and Kirby and said, "Consider yourselves lucky." He lifted his shield and posed with it directly in front of him while he lifted his sword out and held it behind him. He stayed like this for several second before Kirby hopped onto his head and sat down. Everyone chuckled at the scene and they left the room.

"Now that you have been fed and are prepared for battle, we shall set off!" declared Eliwood.

They traveled through the castle and reached the front doors, where a long path led to the nearby village. They avoided this path to avoid raising suspicion. They walked through the forest hunched in a group with Eliwood in the middle. They managed to avoid every villager except for one: Lilina, Roy's wife. She had been helping the village ladies pick fruit for the village and had finished her share early. She was carrying one bucket in each arm. They caught sight of her, but it was too late for all of them to hide in the bushes, so they continued walking, eventually meeting up with her.

Her reaction was not what they expected:

She saw them, looked surprised for a few seconds and, when she saw that they were coming towards her, she dropped both of the buckets. As the berries spilled everywhere, she pulled a staff from under her shirt and hollered, "Be gone, vile creatures!"

She stared directly at King Dedede, who was in front. "Vile?" King Dedede asked, shocked. Before he could pull out an axe in retaliation, Roy stepped forward.

Lilina gasped and rushed forward. She embraced him and said in a worried tone, "Where are you going, and why are you traveling with these creatures?"

"How would you know if we are leaving?" Roy asked.

"You're all traveling with weapons and food." answered Lilina.

Roy turned to Eliwood, who merely shrugged. Roy shook his head and faced Lilina again. He could find no way to lie, so he began to tell her the truth. At that moment, everyone heard a gun shot in the distance. Female screams soon followed that. Lilina gasped and ran towards the source of the voice. Roy had no choice but to follow his wife and Eliwood followed Roy.

"We can't leave him!" Mario declared. "Especially if that was a soldier's gun."

The others agreed and the entire group followed Eliwood. They ran for only a few minutes before they reached a river. There, they saw a man in camouflage on the ground and a woman across the river, facedown, with blood seeping into the river. A group of women had gathered over the woman, trying to heal her, while Roy and Eliwood were tying the man up with rope. A gun floated away with the current.

"Who is that person?" asked Link.

"We don't know!" A woman said hysterically. "He appeared out of the trees and used his strange weapon to kill her. Lilina came from the trees and struck him in the skull and he dropped his weapon. Lord Roy came and wrestled to the ground and Sir Eliwood knocked him unconscious."

"We couldn't save her." Lilina said in grief.

"Send this scoundrel to the dungeon to await execution." Eliwood commanded. The women were quick to oblige and left the river dragging the soldier behind.

"Do you think that there could be more?" Fox whispered to Mario.

Mario only shrugged and said, "I'm not sure. I don't think it's safe to find out."

"Let's leave," said Falco.

"Can you answer me one thing before we depart?" asked Eliwood.

"Sure; what?" C. Falcon answered.

"Are there more of these people in my realm?" He asked gloomily. "Are there more of these murderers?"

Mario answered with another question: "I'm not sure. Where are the tunnels located?"

"One resides in Beru; a day's march from Pherae. This is connected to the Fire Emblem realm. The other resides in Cirian Tantaruz; a half-day's march."

"That might have been a scout," said Falco. "The army, if there is one, might be within an hour of the village. If the scout doesn't come back, they'll attack."

"The army's rules state that scouts are sent in at least two groups of three-" Waluigi stopped, realizing the impact of his words. Everyone circled around Eliwood immediately and five soldiers stepped out of the bushes.

"How do you know army regulations?" One soldier asked.

"My name was Willicent. I was in the army. I quit." He answered.

"Willicent? I distinctly remember a Willicent in a unit that was sent to the Mushroom Kingdom." Another soldier said. "You were sent in the Bait Wave to Legend of Zelda. You weren't supposed to leave. Why are you here now?"

"I told you. I quit." Waluigi repeated.

"Why would you quit? Where would you go?" Another soldier asked.

"The winning side." Waluigi simply said. While they were talking, Link and Luigi had stepped into the middle of the circle and loaded their bows. Fox, Falco, and Krystal had brought out their guns. All five were aiming at their respective soldier. When Waluigi said that, as if on cue, all of the Rebellion Representative Recallers ducked to the ground (if they were large enough) and all five of them fired their weapons at the soldiers. All of the soldiers were hit and all five were killed on impact. They dropped to the ground and blood began spewing from the wounds.

Eliwood walked over to one of the dead soldiers and picked up the gun that had dropped from his hand. He looked through the nozzle of the gun, aimed it at a tree, and pulled the trigger. The bullet shot straight through the tree's trunk and struck another tree several yards away.

"This is madness!" Eliwood gasped. "I have never seen such weapons!"

"There'll be plenty of them," said Falco. "Believe us. We have first hand experience with them." He pointed at his own gun.

"I cannot abandon my people knowing that such a treat exists so near." Eliwood announced. "I am sorry, my friends, but I cannot go with you. I wish you the best of luck with your mission."

He then turned around and walked straight through the trees. Roy looked apologetic at the group and followed his father. The group felt a sudden surge of guilt rush through them. They had no idea what to do now. Only one thing truly mattered:

The army was approaching.


	24. Chapter 23

1. Mario

2. Luigi

3. Kirby

4. King Dedede

5. Metaknight

6. Fox

7. Falco

8. Krystal

9. Waluigi

10. Link

11. Wario

12. Prince Peasley

13. Diddy Kong

14. Donkey Kong

15. Steven

16. Lucas

17. Poo

18. Captain Falcon

--

Chapter 23:

--

"Should we go on without him?" King Dedede asked, looking around at each of them in turn, though none would return his gaze. "If he dies in battle, wouldn't we die too?"

"The army would overrun them if they had the numbers," said Waluigi. "Believe me; I'd know."

"Could they do it within twelve hours?" Mario asked, glancing at the dead soldiers.

"With a large enough number, yes." answered Waluigi.

"An estimation?" Fox asked, also looking at the dead soldiers.

"Five thousand men would be enough, judging by the primitive weapons Eliwood owns." Waluigi said. "Although the main army in Final Destination has at least fifty times that amount."

Mario looked worried. "You never told us that!"

"You knew how large the army was," Waluigi said. "Why do you seem so surprised?"

Mario merely sat down on a rock, shaking his head and frowning. Fox looked at Mario with pity and sighed. He stood up onto another rock and said, "We'll put it to a vote; no one will be left out. Those in favor of moving on without Eliwood, raise your hands."

Silence and little movement; to Fox's surprise, no hands were raised higher than the heads of their owners.

"Those in favor of staying behind and fighting with Eliwood's army."

Everyone raised their hands, while Mario looked at the group with pride. He muttered to himself, "And for a moment, I actually had doubt."

"Hey," Steven said, louder than usual and staring directly at Mario. "We're a team, alright. We fight together, and if necessary we die together. Agreed?"

An awkward silence followed. No one wanted to speak out. Fox looked around and grinned at Steven. "That's right!" He walked up to Steven and put a hand on his shoulder. "We are a team. We are the Rebellion Rep. Recallers!"

"Whoa, whoa!" Falco interrupted, his eyes gleaming. "We're keeping the name?"

"No one's got any better ideas." Fox shrugged.

"Yahoo!" Falco leapt into the air and ran off towards Eliwood's castle, leaving everyone in shock.

Mario stood up and stood in between Fox and Steven. "We've decided our fates; we have a unanimous vote; let's fight this war and win!" He thrust his fist into the air for emphasis. The group cheered and began running after Falco like a pack of kindergarteners heading for recess.

--

Eliwood had gotten tired fairly quickly, mainly due to being covered in twice as much armor as he usually wore, for extra protection. This gave his son, Roy, enough time to catch up with him. Together they walked in silence, the elder man staring at his castle and thinking about what will befall his kingdom should he fail. Roy was worrying about his father and the stress that was infecting his mind.

"Father," Roy began, nervously. "Please do not worry too much about this possible war. If things need be-"

"Son," Eliwood interrupted calmly, removing his gaze from the castle and focusing on the ground through half-closed eyes. "I hope you are not suggesting that we would surrender or flee, like cowards."

"Of course not, father!" Roy said, faking an insulted voice, although that had been exactly what he had been suggesting. "I am merely saying that fighting to the death is not always an option."

"I have been through more wars than you or anyone in my kingdom. I know strategies, attacks, advice. You cannot tell me something I do not already know."

Roy fell silent, trying to come up with encouraging words. Though, inside, he knew his father was right. They remained in silence for several minutes before Falco ran towards them, shortly followed by everyone else in the Rebellion Rep Recallers.

"My comrades, you have returned?" Eliwood asked. "Are you not going to complete your mission?

"We can afford a detour," Link said. "And we can't abandon our friend."

Eliwood smiled. "Thank you all. I will promise that you that we will win!"

Roy nodded in agreement, thankful that his father was feeling confident again. That small weapon had caused his father to shrink into hopelessness, but the confidence and support of his friends had strengthened him. Roy also felt a small bit of jealousy towards them, jealous that they had helped his father while he could not.

"Well then," Fox stepped towards Eliwood and placed a hand on his shoulder. "What are we waiting for? Let's kick some soldiers' ass!"

--

The remainder of the walk to the castle was in silence, each immersed in their own thoughts. Many of them didn't even realize when they had reached the castle and stepped into the walls or each other. Those who were aware chuckled, filled with nervous tension.

They climbed the castle and, despite the surprise of those informed of Eliwood's departure and those who hadn't even known about the large amount of people who had come to the castle in the first place, ignored all questions and headed straight to the lookout tower.

Eliwood grabbed a pair of primitive binoculars (considered new in this realm) and looked out beyond the large forest. He shook his head and gave them to Mario. He saw many trails of smoke in a clustered area. Whether it was the morning fires from the previous night or fires recently made to keep warm were unknown, but the army was confident. They weren't using any methods to conceal the smoke; it seemed like they were purposely using the smoke to intimidate Eliwood.

"This is not good," Mario said, removing the binoculars from his eyes. "They don't seem frightened, and there are a large amount of them."

"Of course," Waluigi scoffed. "What'd you expect? They have no souls. They're just... robots."

"Robots?" Falco repeated in confusion. "Wait, but when we were up close to them, they looked like regular humans."

"True, they look like regular humans," said Fox. "But inside, they're pure circuitry. Artificial blood pumps through their veins. False signals are sent to their robotic brain, making them think like they have homes, families, and lives. In reality, they're born ten minutes before they're sent to war."

"So, wait, they're made?" Luigi asked, fear in his voice and emphasizing his final word.

"By the thousands." Metaknight answered.

"It's a sad thing to think about," said Krystal. "Do you remember Master Hand telling us about them? He called them 'Nintendo's secret army of hundreds of thousands of holographic humans that were trained to obey only one person'. By trained, he meant that, within seconds of creation, they are force-fed information about every military scenario known in existence."

"Any why are they created, you might ask," said Link. "They're supposed to protect us. That is why Crazy Hand was appointed their controller, the one who fed them orders. Most of the time, they're never in use. They stay in the Final Destination realm, passing the time like normal humans would."

"And then, when Master Chief came into power, the entire army was reactivated and sent throughout the realms to kill all in their path. They thought that they were killing the bad guys, when they were killing civilians left and right." said Waluigi. "And these were just the scouts. Five or so sent to each realm to scout out the place and report. If none did, that realm was a prime target. Of course, the Legend of Zelda realm was already a prime target."

"Bit of an ironic thing, isn't it?" Metaknight chuckled. "Our protectors became our greatest enemy."

"Not our greatest enemy," Mario corrected him. "That title belongs solely to Master Chief."

"Well, this is all great, but we are going to war, correct?" Captain Falcon called from the back, a position where he was frustrated at being in.

"He's right. We know our enemy, we know they are confident, and we know they have large numbers. We must use these to our advantage." Eliwood agreed. "Fellow Realm Representatives, follow me to my quarters. There, we shall plan our defense!"

"Wait," Wario shouted from the back. "What about the rest of us?"

Eliwood brushed past him, followed by many of the Realm Reps and Roy, who knew as much of their kingdom as Eliwood. Fox patted Wario on the shoulder and said, "Their lives affect millions. Ours do not, in any direct way. It is up to them to decide how we shall continue the mission. They're our leaders."

Wario glanced at Diddy Kong while Fox said this. "Bunch of crap." He muttered. Fox heard him and rolled his eyes.

Link was the last Realm Rep to walk down the stairs, so Steven took the opportunity to pull him aside. He spoke quietly, but quickly as if in a rush, to make sure that Link was the only one who heard. "Listen, Link, I don't stand a chance if I go to war. I can't swing this sword for my life, which I'll be doing not too soon. You gotta help me. Train me. Do anything! Just help!"

Link was caught by surprise. Steven noticed him glance at the leaving Realm Reps, possibly for help. He was glad that they had left from sight. It gave him a better chance to get Link's help.

After considering it for many moments, with Steven getting more impatient and anxious as he waited, Link nodded. "I will help you."

At this, the others broke into applause, coupled with laughter at each other. Unbeknownst to either of them, everyone who hadn't left had been watching closely with interest. Link and Steven immediately felt embarrassment, but they laughed along with them. The humor was well-accepted, especially during a soon-to-be tragic time.

"Let's go, then." Steven said, waving at everyone. "Have fun, guys!" He turned and descended the stairs. Link waved at the others as well and followed Steven, grinning and shaking his head at his excitement.

--

In the Jungle Japes realm, Beans McBeans had been resting many miles away from the village. He had been collecting food for two days, only now having enough fruit for him to survive a few weeks. To his surprise, he hadn't encountered any of the soldiers that had been roaming the village before he was separated from Chuckie.

Currently, he was sitting on a rock that was twice his size. Its rough, sandy texture was extremely uncomfortable, but it was the best that he could find. The ground was covered in too many bugs and roots that were so close to the surface that they created many bumps along the ground. He knew that he could never have fallen asleep for long if he slept on the ground. He helped make the rock more comfortable to sleep on by placing enough leaves to cover the entire surface of the rock.

He finished off the orange that he was eating and threw the remainder of the peel onto the grass. He looked at the sky and sighed, wondering how long he would be trapped here (as the tunnel he had come from was destroyed) and if he'd ever see his younger brother again. He also wondered if Yoshi was doing okay, and if he and Chuckie had managed to find each other.

He dropped his back and let it crush the leaves covering the rock, hearing a soothing, muffled crunching sound as he did so. He stared at the midday sky and closed his eyes, grateful for the silence.

Suddenly, he heard trees being pushed aside in the distance; small trunks being dislodged from their roots. His head jerked up, feeling a brief moment of dizziness as blood caught up with his brain, and jumped off of the rock. He ducked behind the rock and grabbed a coconut for protection.

Silence fell. An ominous silence. Beans heard a slow, steady breathing that was too close to him. He looked up and saw nothing except a faint trail of dust. He turned around and slowly lifted his head to look above the rock. There, he saw a large ape, sitting cross-legged on the rock with a banana in his mouth. He grinned when he saw Beans and said, "'sup?"

The ape was wearing a red polka dotted bandana tied around his head, black sunglasses that covered up half his face, a white undershirt, and torn, light blue shorts held up by a black belt. It was large, around ten feet tall and had an extremely large grin, showing gleaming, white teeth. It extended an arm, holding another banana, which Beans carefully took.

"What're you doin' in a place like this?" The ape asked in a surfer-like tone.

"W-who are you?" Beans stuttered, dropping his coconut in surprise.

"The name's Funky," The ape said, taking a bite of his banana as he spoke. "Funky Kong."

--

After searching several rooms in the castle and having to ask for directions from a cook, Link and Steven finally made it to the training ground. It was located in the direct middle of the castle; a large, open area. The ground was clay-like gravel, making it soft and firm, yet not too rough or slippery.

In the middle was a large square of painted wood, three feet high, which made up the main arena. Several smaller arenas were located along the northern edge, but this arena was more than five times as large as any of the other arenas. Several training objects were littered around the arena: wooden human-like dummies, targets lined up in a row, a pile of used javelins from the previous day's training.

"This is perfect!" Steven called out, jumping onto the arena and unsheathing his sword in excitement.

"It will do," said Link, impressed but not enthusiastic. "Now then-" He stepped onto the arena and took out his new sword. "-hit me."

"I..." Steven paused. "I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't," Link said with finality. "Now attack me; swing your sword to your best ability and don't hold back. I've trained in my Master Sword for years, but this one works just as well. You will not injure me. Now again: hit me!"

Steven hesitated for a second, and then charged at Link. He jumped into the air a few feet away and swung his sword wildly as he fell. Link dodged each swing, blocked the final swing with his own sword and, using the momentum from Steven's descent, forced Steven to slide to the edge of the arena. Steven coughed the dust out of his mouth as he got back to his feet.

"Okay, I didn't expect that." He was breathing hard. He saw Link was calm and had no trouble breathing, and felt jealous and angry. "I'm sorry. I'm pathetic."

"No, you aren't," Link said, shaking his head. "You are extremely unskilled, but you aren't pathetic."

"Thanks," Steven glared at Link, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You're welcome, now try once again." Link bent his knees in a defensive stance. He twirled his sword around in his hand and pointed it at the ground.

Steven wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead and ran at Link again. Holding it in both hands, he swung his sword horizontally, but Link easily blocked it with only one hand on his own sword. He swung again, vertically, but Link dodged to the side. He pushed Steven backward with his sheild and stepped on his sword. As Steven tried to pull his sword out from under Link's foot, Link twisted his foot, forcing the sword out of Steven's grip. Steven rolled away and got back to his feet, but Link pressed the sword against his neck.

"I surrender!" Steven gasped, throwing his arms into the air. Link shook his head in disappointment and threw the sword back at Steven. He caught the sword and looked at it, feeling shameful.

"Bah, whatever," He shrugged it off. "Let's try again."

Link nodded and prepared for the assault. Steven took three steps to the left, carefully grabbed a rock from the ground, and paused. They stood in silence for several seconds before Steven slowly walked towards him. His speed gradually increased into a slow running when he threw the rock at Link's head. The rock barely missed, but Link took attention away from Steven to duck. Steven swung his sword at Link, catching him in the chest with the blunt edge. Link flew to the side and dropped his sword. As Link got up, Steven stabbed both swords into the ground across his neck.

"Very good!" Link said, clearly surprised. "Although that would never happen in the battlefield, I congratulate you for originality."

"Or lack thereof," Steven admitted. "I've seen many people do that on TV. Never knew I'd do it in real life." He shrugged and grinned.

"What's TV?" Link asked as he removed the swords from the ground.

"Never mind." Steven caught his sword and stepped a safe distance away, feeling confident again.

--

She knew that the mission assigned to Mario and Luigi would not be completed quickly. She had asked Master Hand how long is usually takes to travel through the realms and he had simply replied:

"It will take as long as it needs to take. Do not wish for time to change its natural flow, for you will find that it is a hopeless cause."

This was no help to her, so she asked several inhabitants of the Rebellion realm. Most didn't know. Those that gave her answers did not truly know, for they gave answers that varied from days to years. She gave up this futile effort after three days of worry and settled down in a small building with the other princesses and the wounded Toad.

"You must tell me again," Zelda turned to Daisy, her voice filled with excitement. "When is it coming?"

"Not for another few months," Daisy replied, softly patting her stomach.

"Oh, I simply cannot wait for the big day." Zelda squealed.

"Neither can I," said Toad with much less enthusiasm.

"I probably could," Daisy grimaced, imagining the pain in the future.

"Oh, don't worry about that," said Zelda, patting Daisy's knee. "It's the gift itself that is the most rewardin-" She paused. "Princess Peach, does something trouble you?"

Peach had been looking out the window in a daze. When she heard her name she turned back to Zelda and said, "I'm sorry?"

"Are you okay?" Zelda repeated.

"I am fine, thank you for asking." Peach looked at their worried faces and gave a faux smile. "Please, continue your conversation."

"Princess," said Toad. "I know that you're distressed. Is it about Mario?"

"Not entirely. I do fear for what is happening to him and the others, but I also fear for what could happen if he fails." Peach said, returning her gaze to the window.

"What do you mean?" Daisy asked.

"What if they're all killed, or possibly tortured into giving away Rebellion's location, and the soldiers find and overpower us? What if the entire world is destroyed by this madman: Master Chief?" Peach asked, getting more hysterical and her voice more high pitched with each question.

"Peach," Toad said quietly. "We both know Mario well enough to know that he'll pull through. He would never betray us, no matter what he's put through. You do not have to worry about him."

"I know," She paused, not wanting to announce her fear for the others' trustworthiness. "Thank you, Toad."

She dropped her head to her lap where, in her arms, lay Mario's signature red hat. He had lost it when he stripped down to avoid recognition from the army. A scouting party had found it, along with Mario's overalls, next to the tunnel and had brought it back to Rebellion the day before. Mario's overalls were hanging in a separate building, but Peach had demanded that the hat be placed in her care.

Now she was wondering what was going through Mario's mind at the moment; hoping that he was okay and as worry-free as possible.

--

Once their plan had been unanimously decided on, the Realm Representatives who had followed Eliwood stepped out of his quarters. They paused to let their eyes adjust to the light after being in such a dimly lit room for over an hour. Eliwood led the group to the watch tower, where a watchman was waiting for them. He saluted them and stepped into the shadows while they took up the majority of the room.

Eliwood took the binoculars and faced the forest, where Mario noticed that, even from such a long distance away, the smoke from before had vanished. Eliwood shook his head and gave the binoculars to Mario. Mario looked through them and saw that the army had finished camping and was beginning their assault. Already their first troops were entering the forest.

"It will take them at least an hour to travel the forest," Eliwood said. "Which means we will need to gather troops as quickly as possible."

"Right, father!" Roy turned to the half-hidden watchman. "Watchman, head to the barracks and tell anyone in charge to gather the troops in the village square."

The watchman nodded and left. Mario turned to Eliwood and said, "Let us find the others. They'll want to be in the battle."

"Very well, but be swift." Eliwood said. He winked at Mario and said, "If you are not at the village square within fifteen minutes, we shall leave without you.

Mario smiled, nodded, and turned to the others. "We have thirteen others to find. Let's hurry." The others nodded and left, beginning their search for the remainder of the Realm Representative Recallers.


End file.
